Learning style analysis in surgical training

Learning style analysis is being used at many educational levels to individualize the instructional process. The Kolb Learning Style Inventory (LSI) in particular has been employed to determine the learning preferences of medical students and physicians in family practice, internal medicine, and anesthesiology. This investigation was undertaken to discover whether there exists a characteristic learning profile for surgery as a specialty. The Kolb LSI was administered to 39 surgical personnel. Kolb's Converger was the preferred learning style type of the study group (46%). Accommodator (26%) and Assimilator (20%) were next, followed by Diverger (8%). These results suggest that there is an identifiable surgical learning style that can provide a referential basis for teaching and counseling during residency training.