Learning styles and learning approaches: How closely are they associated with each other and do they change during medical education?

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to determine medical students’ learning styles and approaches and to evaluate the relationship between them, as well as observe whether any changes occur in these during the course of their education. Methods and Materials: This research was carried out on students who were enrolled in 2008-2009 and was conducted in their first, second and fourth years. The study group consisted of students who had fully completed the scales of measurement used for this research in all years. Learning styles and approaches were determined for each period. Results: An increase in the convergent and divergent styles and a decrease in the assimilator style, determined over the years were not statistically significant. The decline in the deep learning approach scores was important. Evaluating the relationship between the learning styles and approaches, we found that the deep learning approach scores with the divergent style were lower in the first two years; however, no relationship was observed in the fourth year. Conclusions: The learning style follow-up study indicates a trend among students who will try to understand the whole by giving importance to details, to focus on problem solving, and to move away from traditional learning. The decrease in deep learning approaches may be linked to the nature of assignments and testing systems.