PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the reactions of medical students to cadaver dissection and their preferred learning methods in studying anatomy.
METHODS Participants were 110 first-year medical students 57 from a pre-medical course and 53 from the graduate entry level. A self-reported questionnaire survey was used to assess students' emotional and physical reactions to their encounters with cadavers in the dissecting room and their preferred teaching and learning methods and materials.
Frequency, paired t-test, and cross-sectional analyses were conducted.
RESULTS Most students experienced negative physical symptoms, such as eye soreness (72%), mile headache or dizziness (40%), headache (18%), decrease in appetite (17%), nausea (15%), and disgust (10%), in the first encounter with a cadaver in the dissection room. They also experienced adverse emotional responses, such as surprise (38%), depression (37%), sadness (23%), fear (23%) and feelings of guilt (19%), anxiety (17%), and crying (2.7%). However, most of these reactions decreased significantly 8 weeks later, except for nausea. Regarding teaching and learning methods, students reported that lectures and cadaver dissections were the most helpful methods in studying anatomy.
CONCLUSION The results shows that initial encounters with a cadaver in the dissecting room caused emotional and physical distress to first-year medical students, but most students adapted gradually to the stressful learning environment. In addition, students regarded cadaver dissection as one of the most helpful learning experiences in studying anatomy.
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METHODS Participants were 124 medical students. Students' self-report measures were used for the assessment of their achievement goal orientations, perceived value, interests, effort, tension, test anxiety, and negative dissection experiences. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used for the data analyses. RESULTS: Students with high levels of mastery-approach goals displayed high interests, values, and efforts while they showed low levels of tension, test anxiety, and negative dissection experiences. In contrast, students with high mastery- and performance-avoidance goals showed high levels of tension and/or test anxiety. Students' performance-approach goals are positively associated with both high effort and high negative dissection experiences. CONCLUSION: These findings offer theoretical and practical implications for anatomy teaching and learning by suggesting that students' learning experiences vary in terms of students' achievement goal orientations which may make differences in students' psychological experiences in a class.
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