Enhancing students’ agency in learning anatomy vocabulary with a formative intervention design

One of the major challenges for health science students is the rapid acquisition of a new vocabulary in anatomy comprising several hundred new words. Research has shown that vocabulary learning can be improved when students are directed to vocabulary strategies. This paper reported a study with a formative intervention design inspired by Vygotsky’s method of double stimulation. In this design, the students were put in a structured situation that invited them to identify the challenges in learning anatomy and then provided them with active guidance and a range of anatomy vocabulary learning strategies that scaffolded them to work out a solution to the challenge and develop their individualized anatomy learning resources. The data were collected from surveys, pre- and post-quiz results, and group discussion transcripts. The results revealed students perceived one of the main challenges in learning anatomy was learning, memorizing and remembering many new words. A key finding in our study was that the formative intervention enhanced students’ agency in creating resources for learning anatomy vocabulary. In addition, the development of their understanding showed a recursive form: from concrete experiences to abstract concepts and then to concrete new practices.