Honey-Mumford's learning styles of medical laboratory students: An observational study with implications for laboratory efficiency

Abstract

Background and Aim: Learning styles are subconscious stable traits influencing the perception and response of learners to their learning environment. Honey–Mumford classification of learning styles has been utilized and evaluated in a number of studies among students across different professional courses. Though learning style preferences of medical students have been assessed, we did not come across any study evaluating the paramedical students of Medical Laboratory Technology (MLT). Because laboratory technicians form the backbone of clinical laboratories in today's evidence-based medicine, it seems imperative to understand the basic learning styles of these students. Thus, this study aimed to identify the learning styles among students pursuing the bachelor degree of medical laboratory technology at a tertiary-level hospital. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study was undertaken among 98 students pursuing Bachelor of MLT at a tertiary-level hospital and medical college. The Honey–Mumford's learning style questionnaire was administered to each student after taking informed consent. Individual students' preference for learning style was categorized as per Mumford classification, and students were categorized according to their preferred learning style. Results: Majority of the students (60%) showed very strong preference for the activist learning style followed by reflector style. Prevalence of activist and reflector styles was found to be equal among our students followed by the theorist style. No difference was noted between male and female students. Conclusion: We demonstrated, for the first time, the learning styles of medical laboratory technology students or the future laboratory technicians. Activist and reflector styles were the most frequent among our study group. Future studies at other institutions providing similar training shall help in refining these results. Such studies are likely to help in adopting appropriate teaching methods and assessment strategies leading to better learning and consequent improvement in laboratory efficiency.