Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to assess the patterns of medical students' responses to Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (LSI) and their relationship to students' adaptation to the medical program as revealed by learning outcomes and personal choices. The LSI was administered to 911 second-year students of both genders during a 14-year timeframe, together with the Course Valuing Inventory and a survey of initial career preference. The results showed strong predominance of abstract conceptualization among the participants and significant association of style with gender but not age. Overall. concrete-style students (accommodators + divergers) showed weaker scores of personal development and cognitive enhancement than the others, but no loss in academic achievement. An additional finding was the significant relationship between style and career preference. Active style was a predictive factor for peer tutoring activity, although of much less importance than overall academic achievement. In conclusion, the findings evidenced meaningful, albeit small, relationships of individual learning style with features of self-assessment of learning outcomes, early career preference, and peer tutoring activity.
Key-words:
Learning; Medical Students; Medical Education; Evaluation