The Museum as a Shared Space: Developing Contextual and Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Arts-Based Education

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Arts-Based Learning
• Museum Studies

Background:

• Context-based interdisciplinary pedagogies are increasingly favored in medical education.
• Museum learning is an underutilized, cost-effective method for implementing these pedagogies.
• Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) provide a foundation for enhancing contextual learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a novel museum-based educational approach, "Outside the Frame," that leverages VTS to emphasize context in medical training.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of this arts-based learning intervention for second-year medical students.

Main Methods:

• A pilot elective course, "Outside the Frame," was conducted with 7 second-year medical students over two semesters.
• The curriculum included didactic sessions, hands-on activities, presentations, and discussions.
• Student feedback was gathered via anonymous pre- and post-course surveys and narrative reflections.

Main Results:

• All students rated the course as "valuable" or "very valuable."
• Narrative reflections indicated that the course enhanced metacognitive awareness and comfort with uncertainty.
• Participants highlighted the importance of context and cross-disciplinary input.

Conclusions:

• A structured arts-based learning framework can effectively integrate context into museum education for medical students.
• This model can facilitate collaborations between medical institutions, museums, and humanities faculty.
• The approach has potential for broader application across disciplines and communities.