SOFT TISSUE

building musculature (and/or fascia, nerves, blood vessels) on scale model skeletons in modelling clay. This learning tool has been used in the US in massage curricula and anatomy based courses with promising initial results (4, 9).

Computer aided visualisation The second tool utilises technology to assist students with the understanding of the complexity of the human body. Students see the relationships between the muscles, skeleton, organs, nerve and blood vessels and they can manipulate the layers of tissue as well as rotate the model. Research (10) has shown that computer-assisted learning has many benefits including: ■ flexibility and convenience ■ ability to present subjects that are visually intensive, detail-oriented and difficult to contextualise

■ ability to personalise learning which helps learners with differing learning styles and prior knowledge of the material

■ economy once the initial set-up fees have been paid

■ potential to give the institution a competitive advantage for recruiting students

■ potential to link people into learning communities.

The adoption of computer based learning tools within the sports therapy field supports the increasingly flexible, modular based and individually tailored curriculum. Although students certainly cannot learn hands-on techniques via distance learning, some integration of technology for self-study would be beneficial for the increasingly techno- logically adept generation of students seen in classrooms today.

ASSESSING STYLES OF LEARNING Students can be encouraged to explore many ways of engaging with the information. Mind mapping (11) and other brainstorming techniques can help students organise information and find ways through the content that helps them to anchor it.

Teachers may benefit from identifying their students MI profiles via a paper and pencil or online test such as Shearer’s (12) Multiple Intelligence Development

8 Assessment Scale (MIDASTM ) (see the

Practical Resources box for a link to take a learning test). A cautionary note should be made; profiles such as these should not be used to categorise students into one dominant intelligence or ‘pigeonhole’. It must be stressed that we all have a mix- ture of these intelligences and their sub–components. The ones that are domi- nant may be subject-specific or influenced by many aspects of life, therefore students should be exposed to a variety of learning strategies that enable all aspects of their intelligence to shine at different times.

This concept of ‘teaching around the cycle’ (13) supports students in accessing their stronger learning styles and strengthening their weaker ones so they become more well-rounded learners. The danger lies in teaching solely to what is identified as students’ strengths, thereby limiting the development of their other intelligences and risking the one-sided nature of the continuum to be perpetuat- ed, albeit with potentially new intelligences being the ones in favour.

There is a dearth of academic research on MI applications in HE. Denny’s (14) study with nursing students indicates that fur- ther work in this area is valuable to both students and educators alike. Pilot studies evaluating these teaching practices in HE classrooms are beginning at the University of Derby.

In conclusion, it is hoped that educators will take the challenge of meeting the needs of the diversity of learners and, by looking at the learning styles and multiple intelligence theories, find creative and engaging ways to bring the body to life.

THE AUTHOR

Fiona Holland, MA, PGCE is a senior lectur- er in sport, health and exercise at the University of Derby-Buxton and pathway leader for sports massage and exercise therapy. She is currently undertaking her doctorate and is studying multiple intelligences in higher education settings.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN IN

PRACTICAL TERMS? ■ If you’re responsible for delivering education generally, the more types of intelligences you can deliver to, the more effective your teaching is likely to be to a much wider audience

References 1. Gardner H. Frames of Mind. Basic Books 1983 ISBN 0465025099 2. Gardner H. Frames of Mind. The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Tenth anniversary edition. Basic Books 1993 ISBN 000686290X 3. Duncan M. Lyons M and Al-Nakeeb Y. You have to do it rather than being in a class and just listening: The impact of problem-based learning on the student experience in sports and exercise biomechanics. Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education 2007;6:1 from www.hlst.heacademy.ac.uk/johste 4. Waters JR, Van Meter P, Perrotti W, Drogo S and Cyr RJ. Cat dissection vs. sculpting human structures in clay: an analysis of two approach- es to undergraduate laboratory education. Advances in Physiology Education 2005;29:27-34 5. Myers DL, Arya L, Verma A, Polseno D and Buchanan E. Pelvic anatomy for obstetrics and gynaecology residents: an experimental study using clay models. Graduate Education 2001;97:2, 321-324 6. Barrington E. Teaching to student diversity in higher education: How Multiple Intelligence Theory can help Teaching in Higher Education, 2004;9:4,421- 434 7. Gardner, H. Multiple Lenses on the Mind, Paper presented at the ExpoGestion Conference 2005 Bogota Colombia 8. Campbell L, Campbell B and Dickinson D. Teaching and learning through multiple intelli- gences. Allyn & Bacon 1996. ISBN 0205363903 9. Myers T. Anatomy Trains. Churchill Livingstone, Oxford 2001. ISBN0443063516 10. Greenhalgh T. Computer assisted learning in undergraduate medical education. British Medical Journal 2001; 322: 40-44 11. Buzan T. The Mind Map Book: Radiant Thinking - Major Evolution in Human Thought. BBC Active 2003 ISBN 0563487011 12. Shearer C B. The MIDASTM

Professional

Manual. MI Research and Consulting 1996 13. Felder RM. Matters of Style. ASEE Prism 1996;6(4):18-23 14. Denny M. unpublished doctoral thesis 2007 15. Juhan D. Job’s Body. Third edition. Station Hill 2003.

PRACTICAL RESOURCES

Sites where you can take free Multiple Intelligence tests to work your learning style or get your students to take it, to identify their style: 1)www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp /client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/index.htm 2) http://www.businessballs.com/howard gardnermultipleintelligences.htm

www.anatomyinclay.com sportEX dynamics 2007:14(Oct):6-8