An effective teaching tool for understanding the complex embryological concept of tongue development for postgraduate clinical anatomy students.

Embryological development of the tongue is a dynamic and complex process that requires learners to understand the mechanisms of pharyngeal arch development as well as visualise the complicated 3D transformations of form and shape during the key developmental stages. Most of the embryology teaching delivered to undergraduate medical and dental students and postgraduate clinical anatomy students within the Centre for Biomedical Sciences Education in Queen’s University Belfast is achieved by 2D methods (books, computers and videos). Despite valid learning being achieved via these methods, students commonly report an absence of understanding and visualisation of the processes involved. Multimodal, active learning has been shown to increase knowledge, understanding and retention over more passive learning techniques, therefore some kinaesthetic learning has been introduced. Postgraduate clinical anatomy students (n=23) were given a lecture on Facial Development, including development of the tongue, with incorporated images and short animated videos. Working in small groups of 2-3, students were given Play-Doh© and tasked with constructing 3D representations of the tongue from the pharyngeal apparatus at 5 weeks and 5 months’ development. Students were able to simply construct important structures such as the lateral lingual swellings, tuberculum impar, copula and epiglottal swelling and demonstrate how these structures progress into the anterior and posterior parts of the tongue, as well as highlight from which pharyngeal arch tongue elements are derived from. Feedback was provided from a minute paper using Likert scale questions and free text. The task received positive feedback with 74% of students stating that modelling with Play-Doh© aided their understanding and learning. Positive comments included that students were better able to orientate and visualise the sequential development of structures. A number of students (n=6) questioned the usefulness of the task and felt it did not aid understanding. Therefore, use of such models in embryology teaching can be used as an additional learning resource to supplement and improve teaching and learning of a complex subject. No ethical approval was required for the pilot study.