Learning styles and approaches: implications for medical education

Abstract

This paper reviews the recent literature on learning styles and approaches to learning. It identifies two separate streams of research, one originating from mainstream cognitive and psychometric psychology and one from research undertaken within the everyday learning environment. The latter is dealt with in greater detail as it seems to have more immediate practical relevance. A simple model of the teaching-learning process is presented showing how students learn in different ways which are partly attributable to their preferred learning style and partly to the context in which the learning takes place. Three basic approaches have been identified: surface, deep and strategic, each resulting in a different learning outcome. The most desirable and successful is the deep approach. The way in which the teaching and the policies of the department and school influence the students' approach to learning are reviewed in some detail. A consideration of these characteristics in medical schools suggested that many may hinder rather than assist in the development of the desired approach. The work reviewed here suggests that the remedy will require not only substantial changes in the teaching, curriculum and, particularly, assessment, but also a new strategy based on identifying and assisting individual students whose approaches to study are not those expected of a competent university-educated doctor.

Can Future Managers and Business Executives be Influenced to Behave more Ethically in the Workplace? The Impact of Approaches to Learning on Business Students’ Cheating Behavior

“…Subsequent research identified a third approach, namely the strategic approach which is associated with competitive students whose predominant motivation is the achievement of good grades. Their intention is to outperform others (Entwistle 1988a(Entwistle , 1988bEntwistle et al 2000;Tait et al 1998) and to achieve their aim they adopt a deep or a surface approach, depending on which is likely to produce the most successful results (Newble and Entwistle 1986). In this regard, research suggests that business students exhibiting strategic learning characteristics are more likely to achieve their goal of good grades by adopting an approach based on a desire to understand (deep) rather than one of rote memorization (surface) (Rodriquez 2009).…”

Influyen las características psicológicas y los estilos de aprendizaje en el rendimiento académico de los estudiantes de medicina? Un estudio retrospectivo

“…Estas variables han sido objeto de estudio, durante las últimas décadas, por parte de escuelas de medicina europeas y norteamericanas por su posible relación con el desempeño académico, la elección de especialidad y la satisfacción de sus alumnos [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] . En Chile se ha investigado la relación entre rasgos psicopatológicos y rendimiento académico en estudiantes universitarios 9,10 , pero no hay estudios que relacionen características de personalidad de individuos clínicamente normales y desempeño académico.…”

Progress testing with short answer questions

“…Consistent with the educational principles of patientcentered and problem-oriented learning, basic science concepts are presented within a clinical context. Problem based learning produces deep levels of learning and understanding and an ability to apply basic science knowledge in the clinical setting (Newble & Entwhistle, 1986;Norman & Schmidt, 1996). Since assessment influences the approach to learning (Newble & Entwhistle, 1986), the UPT aims at reinforcing this learning style by linking the basic science questions to the clinical cases.…”

“…Problem based learning produces deep levels of learning and understanding and an ability to apply basic science knowledge in the clinical setting (Newble & Entwhistle, 1986;Norman & Schmidt, 1996). Since assessment influences the approach to learning (Newble & Entwhistle, 1986), the UPT aims at reinforcing this learning style by linking the basic science questions to the clinical cases. The cases provide a real-life context for clinical reasoning and should lead to external face validity of the test.…”