Comparison of the Effectiveness of Visual Thinking Strategy Between Persian Miniature and Classical Painting in Learning Medical Humanities from the Perspective of Medical Students

Background: Visual thinking strategy (VTS) is an interdisciplinary education that focuses on art. In this method, all students think about complex artistic elements. VTS uses visual literacy to teach communication skills and thinking. Objectives: This study aims to compare the educational effectiveness of Persian pictures with classical painting, which leads to teaching the concepts of medical humanities using medical students’ perspective. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study, medical students of clinical course (trainees and interns, 4th - 7th year of medicine) in the second semester of the 2021 academic year attended a VTS discussion session, which contained thinking about three paintings, including a classical western painting, a Safavid era miniature, and a contemporary painting. At the end of the session, an opinion poll on the effectiveness criteria was completed by the students separately for each painting, and the results were analyzed. Results: According to the findings, our intervention improved visual and auditory sensitivity, accuracy and attention, interaction and cooperation with others, teamwork, and an understanding of their share in the group. In addition, from the perspective of contemporary miniature students, this field played a prominent role in reducing job exhaustion, anxiety, and stress, and created a sense of calm and aesthetics in students by applying topics and issues of the day and paying attention to socio-cultural issues. Classical western painting conveyed a sense of calm and discomfort to the students. Based on the results of interpretive content analysis, this kind of painting had a profound effect on the meaning transmission so that it exposed the comprehensive views on the subject to the viewer’s sight. Given that the Safavid miniature contains various symbols that express the details of the social context and cultural traditions related to human beings, it conveys a variety of senses. On the other hand, the use of classical painting and contemporary Persian painting in VTS discussions in medical education was more prominent than the Safavid era miniature. Conclusions: Miniature can have helpful effects on improving medical professional skills similar to classical painting in VTS topics.