Creating the HAPS Physiology Learning Outcomes: terminology, eponyms, inclusive language, core concepts, and skills

General skills amidst the details: alternative learning objectives and a framework of competencies for human anatomy

The field of anatomy is often seen by nonanatomists as concerned primarily with the tasks of locating, naming, and describing structures; these tasks, in turn, are often assumed to require only lower-order cognitive skills (LOCSs), i.e., the Knowledge or Comprehension levels of Bloom's taxonomy. Many nonanatomists may thus believe that studying anatomy does not develop transferable higher-order cognitive skills. Published lists of anatomy learning objectives (LOs) might reinforce this view by focusing attention on numerous details of specific structures and regions. To explore this issue further, we have analyzed the structure of published peer-reviewed LOs by characterizing their organization (single-tiered or multi-tiered), inclusion of function, use of action verbs, and dependence on or independence of context. Our results suggest that previously published LO lists, despite their value, may not fully showcase opportunities for students to develop higher-order skills. In the hope of stimulating further discussion and scholarship, we present here a two-tiered framework of human anatomy competencies, i.e., generalizable skills beyond straightforward recognition and memorization. This framework, which is intended to be both student-facing and faculty-facing, illustrates how anatomy courses may be reframed as opportunities to think critically and develop sophisticated, professionally relevant skills.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Although skilled anatomists know that anatomy is much more than memorization, nonanatomists are often unsure how to emphasize general skills and problem-solving in their teaching of the subject. Here we show how a multi-tiered approach to defining and assessing learning objectives (LOs) can reframe anatomy courses as more than long lists of structures to remember.

Hundreds of body parts are named after hair: is anatomical terminology supercilious or simply super silly?

Relatively more-apparent body parts are often used to name relatively less-apparent body parts. To explore this etymological phenomenon, this report assesses anatomical terminology derived from some of the most apparent structures of the human body-hairs. Hair-related anatomical terminology involves varied etymons, roots, and derivatives: calvus "bald," cilia "eyelashes," glaber "hairless," pilus "hair," pubes (historically referring to the developing beard), pudendum "modesty" (referring to hair growth that covers genitalia), tempus "time" (referring to the location where hair commonly grays, thus showing a person's age), and tragus "goat" (referring to the tuft of hair that resembles the beard of a goat). Also including lanugo, vibrissae, hirci, flocculus, and cauda equina, a systematic review of Terminologia Anatomica and Terminologia Neuroanatomica revealed 285 unique non-duplicate hair-related terms. Several anatomical terms allude to particular age groups or sexes, but are used indiscriminately (e.g., tragus alludes to the older male ear, though may describe the fetal female ear). Likewise, human-centric anatomical terminology influences non-human anatomical terminology- a turtle has a "temporal bone" only because some humans develop gray hair on the sides of their heads as they age. Accordingly, etymological recursion is common: The human ear has a tragus, named after the goat, and the goat ear has a tragus, named after the human tragus, that was named after the goat. The use of Latin as the foundation of anatomical and medical terminology may appear seriously supercilious; however, it is often simply super silly. After all, hundreds of body parts are formally named after hair.

A scoping review of undergraduate anatomy and physiology education: approaches to evaluating student outcomes in the United States

Studies document difficulties undergraduate pre-nursing and allied health students face when learning human anatomy and physiology (A&P) course content. A comprehensive synthesis exploring the teaching practices within the course and how those practices are evaluated is warranted. This scoping literature review identified 78 journal articles investigating teaching practices, and we charted their research methods, student outcomes, and institutional contexts. Content analysis found the teaching practices described most frequently in A&P education research literature involved multiple aligned changes across the curriculum, including student activities, course delivery, and assessments. Critical appraisal of study methodologies revealed that most studies in undergraduate A&P were longitudinal, included comparison groups, and used simple inferential statistics. In contrast, few studies listed limitations of their research, collected data from multiple institutions, or reported student demographic data. We believe these factors pose notable limitations to the interpretation of A&P education studies across institutional contexts. The results of this review identify future lines of inquiry to enrich existing evidence about pedagogical interventions in A&P courses.