AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Anatomy provides scientists with a common vocabulary for discussing the human body, and is, therefore, an important aspect of science education. Literature shows that traditional teaching methods may be enhanced by the employment of mastery-based learning in an autonomy-supportive environment. The present study sought to determine the effects of these teaching strategies on the learning of neuroanatomy in a graduate neurobiology course. These results show students learned and reportedly enjoyed learning a large amount of neuroanatomy. Experimentally taught students who completed the curriculum did well on the 30-item neuroanatomy quiz (mean score 81%), which was administered at the end of the 16-week semester. Administration of a modified Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) revealed students felt relatively competent, interested, and unpressured (average rating of 5 out of 7) while studying neuroanatomy. They did not report high levels of perceived choice (3/7). We believe these teaching methods should be employed in more courses.