The influence of curriculum format on learning preference and learning style.

Undergraduate occupational therapy students were given the Rezler-French Learning Preference and the Kolb Learning Style Inventories at the introduction of professional course work (pretest) and upon completion of junior year course work and Level 1 fieldwork (posttest) 1 year later. The students' course work was a guided-study, modified competency-based program that included guided independent study, laboratory work, small group study, and one-to-one tutorials in preference to, but not excluding, the more traditional lecture method. After experiencing different modes of instruction, the students indicated no significant difference in their preferences for ways of learning or in processing information. Implications of these findings for the teaching-learning process are discussed.