The preferred learning style among residents and faculty members of an internal medicine residency program.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the preferred learning style, as defined by David Kolb, and predictors of the different learning styles among residents and faculty members at an internal medicine residency program.

DESIGN/SETTING: A cross sectional study of internal medicine residents and faculty members at Morehouse School of Medicine was performed using the Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) version 3.1.

MEASUREMENTS

The Kolb LSI is a questionnaire of 12 sentences, each with four phrases for sentence completion that are to be ranked according to how they apply to the subject.

RESULTS

Forty-two out of 59 questionnaires that were given out to residents and attending physicians were properly completed and returned. Assimilating style was the predominant learning style among residents (42%) and attending physicians (55%). There was no significant association between age, gender or medical education status, and learning styles.

CONCLUSIONS

The understanding of residents' learning styles may facilitate instructional rapport between residents and attending physicians, thereby improving residents' academic performance.