3:00 LEARNING STYLES IN THE FIRST-YEAR MEDICAL
CLASS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSISSIPPI
MEDICAL CENTER
James Hutchins 1*, Steve Watson1, Joanne Olson1, LouAnn
Woodward1, Robin Rockhold1, James Brown1, Jacob Olivier1,
and Connie Schimmel2, 1University of Mississippi Medical
Center, Jackson, MS 39216 and 2Millsaps College, Jackson,
MS 39210
It is clear that medical students, like students in a
variety of other settings, bring different needs and abilities to
the classroom. Yet, few medical school faculty adapt their
teaching styles to be a good “fit” to student learning styles and
curriculum design is blind to the influence of student learning
styles. To improve our teaching mission, to help in our ongoing
curriculum reform efforts, and to help students be successful in
medical school, we have embarked on a longitudinal study to
determine which learning styles predominate amongst medical
students, how those styles might change over time, and how
learning style affects performance. First-year medical students
(N = 100) were given a battery of often-used learning styles
inventories during orientation, before the first day of class.
These include: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI); Gregorc
Style Delineator (www.gregorc.com); VARK (www.varklearn.
com); and the adult version of the Dunn, Dunn and Price
instrument (www.learningstyles.com). Students were given a
randomly-assigned four-digit code number which will render
the investigators blind to the identity of the student. Our
Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs will supply course grades
keyed to the code numbers so that we may attempt to correlate
performance in specific courses with learning style. Characteristics
of this population, with comparison to normative populations
where available, will be presented. Future work will allow
us to examine changes in learning style over time and how
learning style affects learning outcomes in the medical school
environment.