The context of learning anatomy: does it make a difference?

This study set out to ascertain whether the context in which anatomy is learnt made a difference to students' perceptions of learning. An A pproach to L earning I nventory ( ASSIST ) and a 31‐item A natomy L earning E xperience Q uestionnaire ( ALE ) were administered to 224 students (77 dental, 132 medical and 19 speech and language) as a multi‐site study. Results revealed that 45% adopted a strategic, 39% a deep and 14% a surface approach. Trends between professions are similar for a deep or strategic approach (both ~ 40%). However, a surface approach differed between professions (7% dentistry, 16% medicine, 26% speech and language science). Dental students responded more to being able to use their knowledge than did other groups ( P  = 0.0001). Medical students found the dissecting environment an intimidating one and subsequently reported finding online resources helpful ( P  = 0.015 and P  = 0.003, respectively). Speech and language science students reported that they experienced greater difficulties with learning anatomy; they reported finding the amount to learn daunting ( P  = 0.007), struggled to remember what they did last semester ( P  = 0.032) and were not confident in their knowledge base ( P  = 0.0001). All students responded strongly to the statement ‘I feel that working with cadaveric material is an important part of becoming a doctor/dentist/health care professional’. A strong response to this statement was associated with students adopting a deep approach ( P  = 0.0001). This study has elucidated that local curriculum factors are important in creating an enabling learning environment. There are also a number of generic issues that can be identified as being inherent in the learning of anatomy as a discipline and are experienced across courses, different student groups and institutions.