How do medical students learn: Medical student learning styles and factors that affect these learning styles

Abstract

Medical students have individual learning styles, but these have been shown to change and develop as students mature and progress through their medical education. The purpose of this research project was to study the factors that influence the learning styles and activities of undergraduate medical students. We hypothesized that undergraduate medical students use different learning approaches and that their learning approaches depend on individual student characteristics: sex, age, and previous premedical education. In particular, we hypothesized that final‐year medical students who had global assessments of their performance would have higher deep learning scores and lower surface learning scores than would 3rd‐year medical students in their preclerkship year who must write a comprehensive, multiple‐choice question (MCQ) final examination. The Study Process Questionnaire was included and produced scores for surface, deep, and achieving learning approaches. The students who were surveyed had predominantly deep learning approaches; scores for surface learning were second highest, and scores for achieving learning were the lowest. There were correlations between the learning approaches and (a) student motives to “do well”; in medical school, (b) student study methods, and (c) their academic performance. Student approaches to learning were influenced by their age, premedical university education, and career choices. There were no differences between the 3rd‐ and 4th‐year students. Students also indicated that their study methods were determined by the assessment methods they encountered. Students indicated that in the preclinical years, much of their study was rote memorization. They indicated their study for MCQ examinations fostered surface learning; whereas, studying for free‐response written questions and clinical examinations encouraged deep learning.