Learning styles of medical students, general surgery residents, and general surgeons: implications for surgical education

Paul T Engels,Chris De Gara

doi:10.1186/1472-6920-10-51

Paul T Engels, Chris De Gara

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-10-51

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Abstract

BackgroundSurgical education is evolving under the dual pressures of an enlarging body of knowledge required during residency and mounting work-hour restrictions. Changes in surgical residency training need to be based on available educational models and research to ensure successful training of surgeons. Experiential learning theory, developed by David Kolb, demonstrates the importance of individual learning styles in improving learning. This study helps elucidate the way in which medical students, surgical residents, and surgical faculty learn.MethodsThe Kolb Learning Style Inventory, which divides individual learning styles into Accommodating, Diverging, Converging, and Assimilating categories, was administered to the second year undergraduate medical students, general surgery resident body, and general surgery faculty at the University of Alberta.ResultsA total of 241 faculty, residents, and students were surveyed with an overall response rate of 73%. The predominant learning style of the medical students was assimilating and this was statistically significant (p < 0.03) from the converging learning style found in the residents and faculty. The predominant learning styles of the residents and faculty were convergent and accommodative, with no statistically significant differences between the residents and the faculty.ConclusionsWe conclude that medical students have a significantly different learning style from general surgical trainees and general surgeons. This has important implications in the education of general surgery residents.

Highlights

Surgical education is evolving under the dual pressures of an enlarging body of knowledge required during residency and mounting work-hour restrictions
Modern surgical education has been crafted and shaped by visionaries such as Halsted who have helped evolve the historical model of apprenticeship into the current organized system of surgical education that we know as Residency[2]
The demographics of the generation of surgeons[3] and the methods by which they are trained are rapidly evolving[4], especially with the evolution of surgical simulation[5]; it has recently been suggested that the role for this historic apprenticeship no longer exists in the era of modern surgical education[6]

Summary

Introduction

Surgical education is evolving under the dual pressures of an enlarging body of knowledge required during residency and mounting work-hour restrictions. Current surgical trainees originate from a diverse educational, cultural, ethnic, and gender background[2], and are responsible for developing skills in the role as a medical expert, but in the role as a professional, scholar, health advocate, manager, collaborator, and communicator[7]. These changing demographics and demands call for the implementation of more effective and efficient training programs. While other studies have examined the relationship of learning styles to specific aspects of education[5,9], we sought to assess the general learning styles of pre-surgical trainees, surgical trainees, and practicing surgeons, to better assess for differences between them and any evidence of evolution of learning style

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