A scoping review of teaching approaches and learning objectives for anatomical variation in gross anatomy courses...

Gross anatomy is often taught and assessed based on a "standard" view of the human body, limiting students' exposure to normal variation, creating a potential curricular gap in the training of future anatomists and health care professionals. This scoping review explores learning objectives and teaching approaches associated with anatomical variation in undergraduate, graduate, and professional courses. Six primary databases and gray literature sources were searched. Records that described either implicit or explicit approaches for teaching anatomical variation in gross anatomy courses at the undergraduate, graduate, or professional level were included. Source selection, data extraction, and analysis followed the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. Human donor dissection was the most common approach for implicitly teaching anatomical variation (35.7%, 56/157). Only a few records (25.5%, 40/157) reported examples of explicit teaching approaches, such as student recordings of variation, exposure to multiple donors, and independent research. Reported learning objectives primarily involved awareness, appreciation, and knowledge of anatomical variation. Other learning objectives included the recognition of human diversity, professionalism, collaboration, knowledge through anatomical variation, and navigating anatomical variation. Objectives were mapped to Bloom's Taxonomy, showing that explicit approaches were associated with higher-order learning. This review highlights a gap in the literature regarding the explicit teaching of anatomical variation despite the benefits of explicit approaches for enabling higher-order levels of learning across multiple domains. Recognizing anatomical variation is essential for health care professionals, and this review suggests a need for intentional instructional strategies to better support students in navigating anatomical diversity in educational and clinical contexts.