Allison Jill, Mulay Shree, Kidd Monica
Health Sciences Centre, Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada.
Division of Community Health and Humanities, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL, Canada.
Educ Health (Abingdon). 2017 Jan-Apr;30(1):64-67. doi: 10.4103/1357-6283.210511.
The desire to make meaning out of images, metaphor, and other representations indicates higher-order cognitive skills that can be difficult to teach, especially in the complex and unfamiliar environments like those encountered in many global health experiences. Because reflecting on art can help develop medical students' imaginative and interpretive skills, we used visual thinking strategies (VTS) during an immersive 4-week global health elective for medical students to help them construct new understanding of the social determinants of health in a low-resource setting. We were aware of no previous formal efforts to use art in global health training.
We assembled a group of eight medical students in front of a street mural in Kathmandu and used VTS methods to interpret the scene with respect to the social determinants of health. We recorded and transcribed the conversation and conducted a thematic analysis of student responses.
Students shared observations about the mural in a supportive, nonjudgmental fashion. Two main themes emerged from their observations: those of human-environment interactions (specifically community dynamics, subsistence land use, resources, and health) and entrapment/control, particularly relating to expectations of, and demands on, women in traditional farming communities. They used the images as well as their experience in Nepali communities to consolidate complex community health concepts.
VTS helped students articulate their deepening understanding of the social determinants of health in Nepal, suggesting that reflection on visual art can help learners apply, analyze, and evaluate complex concepts in global health. We demonstrate the relevance of drawing upon many aspects of cultural learning, regarding art as a kind of text that holds valuable information. These findings may help provide innovative opportunities for teaching and evaluating global health training in the future.
从图像、隐喻及其他表现形式中获取意义的愿望体现了高阶认知技能，而这些技能可能难以教授，尤其是在许多全球健康体验中所遇到的复杂且不熟悉的环境里。由于对艺术的反思有助于培养医学生的想象力和解释能力，我们在为期4周的沉浸式全球健康选修课中，让医学生运用视觉思维策略（VTS），以帮助他们在资源匮乏的环境中构建对健康社会决定因素的新理解。我们知晓此前尚无在全球健康培训中正式运用艺术的尝试。
我们在加德满都的一幅街头壁画前召集了一组8名医学生，运用VTS方法从健康社会决定因素的角度解读这幅场景。我们记录并转录了对话内容，并对学生的回答进行了主题分析。
学生们以支持性、无评判性的方式分享了对壁画的观察。他们的观察中出现了两个主要主题：人类与环境的相互作用（特别是社区动态、自给农业用地使用、资源和健康）以及束缚/控制，尤其涉及传统农耕社区中对女性的期望和要求。他们利用这些图像以及在尼泊尔社区的经历来巩固复杂的社区健康概念。
VTS帮助学生清晰表达了他们对尼泊尔健康社会决定因素的深入理解，这表明对视觉艺术的反思有助于学习者在全球健康领域应用、分析和评估复杂概念。我们证明了借鉴文化学习的多个方面的相关性，将艺术视为一种包含宝贵信息的文本。这些发现可能有助于为未来的全球健康培训教学和评估提供创新机会。
