Learning Styles in undergraduate dentistry students: A systematic review

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Dental Education
• Learning Psychology

Background:

• Understanding student learning styles is crucial for optimizing educational strategies in dentistry.
• Previous research indicates variability in learning preferences among healthcare students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the prevalence of various learning styles among undergraduate dentistry students.
• To identify dominant learning styles across different stages of dental education.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review adhering to Cochrane methodology and PRISMA statement.
• Searched four databases using keywords: 'Learning Style' AND 'Dentistry' and 'Learning Style' AND 'dental student'.
• Included 30 articles utilizing VARK, Kolb LS Inventory, Honey-Alonso, and Felder-Solomon instruments.

Main Results:

• Multimodal (50.4%) and visual (83.6%) styles were most prevalent across included studies.
• Kolb's divergent (32.7%) and Felder-Solomon's active (64.8%) styles were also frequently observed.
• Prevalence varied, with 17 studies using VARK, 8 using Kolb LSI, and 3 each using CHAEA and ILS.

Conclusions:

• A shift towards multimodal, divergent, and reflective learning styles is observed in clinical dental students.
• Preclinical dental students tend to favor unimodal, convergent, and theoretical learning styles.
• Educational methodologies in preclinical versus clinical dental courses may influence this dynamism in learning styles.