Gestures-enhanced anatomy teaching: A literature review of an educational strategy with promising outcomes.

Purpose: The educational use of gestures has resulted in positive outcomes in several fields. We performed a literature review to investigate the outcomes of the use of gestures to enhance the existing anatomy education methods.
Methods: PubMed, SCOPUS, ERIC and Cochrane databases were searched for papers with purpose to investigate the outcomes of the use of gestures (either seeing or performing them or both) as adjuncts to existing anatomy education methods.
Results: Six articles were included. Three studies comprised both seeing and performing gestures by the students, while the remaining three studies only comprised either seeing or performing gestures by the students. Most studies evaluated the acquisition of anatomical knowledge after the educational intervention and demonstrated that the addition of gestures resulted in significant benefit compared to control groups, while positive students' perceptions were recorded. It was not clarified whether seeing or performing gestures by the students leads to better educational outcomes.
Conclusion: Gestures-enhanced anatomy education seems to be a promising teaching strategy, given that it has led to significantly increased acquisition of anatomical knowledge compared to no gestures-enhanced modalities. The addition of gestures to existing anatomy education modalities seems able to increase their potential without increasing their cost. Further research is needed to determine if seeing or performing gestures by the students is more effective.
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