An assessment of learning styles of undergraduate medical students in three different types of curriculum

Abstract

Background: Research in academia suggests that types of school may have an impact on learning styles. The study is aimed to examine the learning styles of students from medical institutions using different types of curriculum. Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in the three largest public-sector medical colleges using conventional, hybrid, and a problem-based learning-based curriculum in Saudi Arabia. By using convenient sampling, we collected 316 responses. The questionnaire consisted of sociodemographic data and index of learning style instrument. The categorical data were presented as percentages and descriptive data were analyzed using the Chi-square test. Value of P < 0.05 level was considered statistically significant. Results: Of the 316 participants, the male-to-female ratio was 1:1. Gender was associated with a significant difference in the visual/verbal dimension (P = 0.034). Irrespective of college, most of the participants are primarily balanced in active/reflective (67.2%), visual (51.1%), and sequential (68.8%) with slight shift toward sensing (47.6%). Significant differences between colleges were found in sensing/intuitive (P = 0.005) and sequential/global (P = 0.012) dimensions. There was no significant association between academic years with learning styles in the three medical colleges from public sector universities. Conclusion: Irrespective of college, most of the participants' preferred style was visual illustrations supported by hands-on teaching in a stepwise process. Although, medical students in different universities possessed different learning styles. It has also been shown that students in a single university tend to develop the same learning styles as they advance through the years. The collaboration between institutions using different types of the curriculum may increase the quality of education by developing effective teaching and learning methods that correspond with the learning styles of students.