UTILIZING LEARNING PRINCIPLES: TEACHING MEDICAL STUDENTS HOW TO LEARN IN A FIRST YEAR MICROSCOPIC ANATOMY COURSE

Richard Feinberg¹ and Norma S. Saks², ¹New Jersey Medical School, Newark, NJ07103 ²Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Piscataway, NJ 08854 U.S.A.

PURPOSE: Most medical students develop effective study methods through trial and error, sometimes a slow and frustrating process. The goal was to develop a specific lecture for first year students to focus on strategies to learn Microscopic Anatomy.

METHODS: Learning principles and study strategies as described in the book, How to Excel in Medical School, were used to develop a lecture in a first year Microscopic Anatomy course on how to learn the course material to achieve durable learning. Topics included: understanding the relationship between structural and functional qualities in tissues, integrating sources of visual and written material, learning the fundamentals (to get the big picture), using verbal cues (to note size, shape, pattern, density, etc.), and utilizing compare and contrast strategies, i.e. to pay attention to “look-alikes.”

RESULTS: The study strategies lecture was well integrated with content material and contained reference to popular culture; the lecturer was satisfied with it. Informal student feedback indicated that the “how to learn” information was important, but they had difficulty remembering specifics from the introductory lecture. The relationship of how learning about effective study strategies impacted course performance is not known.

CONCLUSION/FUTURE DIRECTIONS: Teaching students how to learn specific content material as an integral part of a Microscopic Anatomy course may have the potential to increase student achievement and to serve as an adjunct to academic support for medical students. The most effective placement and format of the instruction (lecture or lab? presentation or written materials?) needs to be explored.