Cranial nerve (CN) knowledge is essential for students in health professions. Gestures and body movements (e.g., mime) have been shown to improve cognition and satisfaction with anatomy teaching. The aim of this pilot study was to compare the effectiveness of didactic lecturing with that of miming lecturing for student learning of the CNs. The research design involved exposure of the same group of students to didactic followed by miming lecturing of CNs. The effectiveness of each lecturing strategy was measured via pre‐ and post‐testing. Student perceptions of these strategies were measured by a survey. As an example of miming, gestures for CN VII included funny faces for muscles of facial expression, kangaroo vocalization for taste, spitting action for saliva production, and crying for lacrimal gland production. Accounting for extra duration of the miming lecture, it was shown that pre‐ to post‐test improvement was higher for the miming presentation than for the didactic (0.47 ± 0.03 marks/minute versus 0.33 ± 0.03, n = 39, P < 0.005). Students perceived that the miming lecture was more interactive, engaging, effective, and motivating to attend (mean on five‐point Likert scale: 4.62, 4.64, 4.56, 4.31, respectively) than the didactic lecture. In the final examination, performance was better (P < 0.001, n = 39) on the CN than on the non‐CN questions—particularly for students scoring ≤60%. While mediating factors need elucidation (e.g., learning due to repetition of content), this study's findings support the theory that gestures and body movements help learners to acquire anatomical knowledge. Anat Sci Educ 8: 584–592. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of the American Association of Anatomists.

中文翻译：

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完全是哑剧：教颅神经时，行动胜于雄辩。

颅神经（CN）知识对于健康专业的学生至关重要。手势和身体动作（例如，哑剧）已被证明可以改善对解剖学教学的认知和满意度。这项试验性研究的目的是比较教学法与模仿教学对CNs学生学习的效果。研究设计涉及让同一组学生接受教actic，然后模仿CN的演讲。每种演讲策略的有效性都通过测试前和测试后进行衡量。学生对这些策略的看法是通过调查来衡量的。作为模仿的一个例子，CN VII的手势包括表情肌肉的滑稽面孔，袋鼠发声的味觉，吐唾液的唾液产生作用和哭泣的泪腺产生。n  = 39，P  <0.005）。学生们认为，模仿课程比讲授课程更具互动性，参与性，有效性和激励性（分别为李克特五分制：4.62、4.64、4.56、4.31）。在期末考试中， CN的成绩比非CN的成绩要好（P  <0.001，n = 39），尤其是对于得分≤60％的学生。尽管需要阐明中介因素（例如，由于重复内容而学习），但这项研究的发现支持手势和身体动作有助于学习者获取解剖学知识的理论。Ana Sci Educ 8：584-592。©2015作者。由Wiley Periodicals，Inc.代表美国解剖学家协会出版。