Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Medical Education
Date Submitted: Sep 22, 2024
Date Accepted: Jul 3, 2025
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How learning styles characterize in medical students, surgical residents, medical staff and general surgery teachers while learning surgery: a scoping review.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Learning style is a biologically and developmentally imposed configuration of personal characteristics which make the same teaching method effective for some and ineffective for others. Studies support a relationship between learning style and medicine’s career choice resulting in learning style patterns observed in distinct types of residency programs, which can also be applied to general surgery, from the medical school to latest stages of training. The methodologies, populations, and contexts of the few studies pertinent to the matter are very different from one another, and a scoping review on this theme will unequivocally enhance and organize what is already known.
Objective:
The goal of this study is to identify and map out data from studies that report on learning styles in medical students, surgical residents, medical staff, and surgical teachers.
Methods:
The search strategy was performed on September 25, 2023, by a librarian and digital search strategy expert, through the descriptors “learning, style” and “surgery”. Databases consulted were EMBASE, SCOPUS, Web of Science (WOS) and PUBMED through descriptors and its synonyms, according to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). Of the 213 articles found, 135 remained after the exclusion of duplicates. The remaining 78 articles were analyzed by three of the researchers independently. 27 articles were selected. 2 were excluded because the full article was not found.
Results:
96% of the articles used cognitive theories as theoretical basis. 36% (n=9) used the VARK instrument and 40% (n=10) chose Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory. The papers concentrate especially on the 2010 years, and most of them are in North America or Europe. The smallest study had 15 participants and the biggest, 1549 participants.
Conclusions:
How to deal with the students, residents, and surgical staffs’ education, and considering their necessities, the new ways of accessing and sharing knowledge, and the scientific production’s speed, is key. Clinical Trial: This scoping review protocol was registered in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/75ku4.
Citation
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Copyright
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