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Effect of Surface Anatomy Mapping on Students’ Retention of Regional Anatomy

Abstract

The study examines the effect of surface anatomy mapping on students’ retention of regional anatomy, with emphasis on the use of practical mapping activities to strengthen students’ ability to remember the location, boundaries, relationships, and surface features of anatomical structures within specific body regions. Surface anatomy mapping provides a visual and spatial approach to learning by allowing students to identify and represent anatomical landmarks and their relationship to underlying structures. This approach may enhance active engagement with regional anatomy and support the long-term retention of anatomical knowledge. The study will assess students’ retention of regional anatomy before and after exposure to structured surface anatomy mapping activities. The specific objectives will include determining students’ baseline knowledge and retention of selected regional anatomical structures, introducing structured surface mapping exercises, assessing students’ retention following the intervention, and comparing their performance before and after the learning activities. A quasi-experimental research design will be adopted for the study. An appropriate sample of undergraduate students will be selected using a suitable sampling technique and exposed to structured surface anatomy mapping exercises covering selected body regions. The activities will involve identifying surface landmarks, marking anatomical boundaries, mapping the positions of selected structures, and relating surface features to underlying bones, muscles, vessels, nerves, joints, and organs using appropriate diagrams, anatomical models, and supervised demonstrations. Data will be collected using standardized regional anatomy assessments, including immediate and delayed retention tests, and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation, with appropriate inferential tests applied where necessary. The study is expected to reveal improved retention of regional anatomy among students exposed to surface anatomy mapping compared with their baseline performance. Students may demonstrate better recall of anatomical landmarks, regional boundaries, structural relationships, and the positions of clinically relevant structures. Retention may be stronger for regions with clearly defined surface landmarks, while complex regions involving closely related or deeper structures may continue to present difficulties. The findings will be useful to anatomists, anatomy educators, clinical skills instructors, medical students, physiotherapy students, nursing students, and other healthcare trainees involved in regional anatomy education. The study may provide useful information on the value of visual and spatial learning activities in improving the retention of anatomical knowledge and may assist educators in developing practical teaching strategies that complement lectures, models, diagrams, and specimen-based learning. The study will conclude by determining the effect of structured surface anatomy mapping on students’ retention of regional anatomy. It is recommended that surface anatomy mapping exercises should be incorporated into practical anatomy teaching, with adequate supervision, appropriate anatomical references, and opportunities for repeated mapping and review. Further studies involving larger and more diverse student populations should be conducted to provide additional evidence on the effectiveness of surface anatomy mapping for long-term retention of regional anatomical knowledge.

Keywords: Surface anatomy mapping, regional anatomy, knowledge retention, anatomy education, undergraduate students, surface anatomy, anatomical landmarks, regional anatomy learning, practical anatomy, spatial learning, anatomical relationships, visual learning, anatomy retention, anatomy teaching, medical education.