Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Jack, Megan C., MD
• Kenkare, Sonya B
• Saville, Benjamin R., PhD
• Beidler, Stephanie K., MD
• Saba, Sam C., MD
• West, Alisha N., MD
• Hanemann, Michael S., MD
• van Aalst, John A., MD

Titel

Improving Education under Work-Hour Restrictions: Comparing Learning and Teaching Preferences of Faculty, Residents, and Students

Ist Teil von

• Journal of surgical education, 2010-09, Vol.67 (5), p.290-296

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Background Faced with work-hour restrictions, educators are mandated to improve the efficiency of resident and medical student education. Few studies have assessed learning styles in medicine; none have compared teaching and learning preferences. Validated tools exist to study these deficiencies. Kolb describes 4 learning styles: converging (practical), diverging (imaginative), assimilating (inductive), and accommodating (active). Grasha Teaching Styles are categorized into “clusters”: 1 (teacher-centered, knowledge acquisition), 2 (teacher-centered, role modeling), 3 (student-centered, problem-solving), and 4 (student-centered, facilitative). Study Design Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (HayGroup, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Grasha-Riechmann's TSS were administered to surgical faculty (n = 61), residents (n = 96), and medical students (n = 183) at a tertiary academic medical center, after informed consent was obtained (IRB # 06-0612). Statistical analysis was performed using χ2 and Fisher exact tests. Results Surgical residents preferred active learning (p = 0.053), whereas faculty preferred reflective learning (p < 0.01). As a result of a comparison of teaching preferences, although both groups preferred student-centered, facilitative teaching, faculty preferred teacher-centered, role-modeling instruction (p = 0.02) more often. Residents had no dominant teaching style more often than surgical faculty (p = 0.01). Medical students preferred converging learning (42%) and cluster 4 teaching (35%). Statistical significance was unchanged when corrected for gender, resident training level, and subspecialization. Conclusions Significant differences exist between faculty and residents in both learning and teaching preferences; this finding suggests inefficiency in resident education, as previous research suggests that learning styles parallel teaching styles. Absence of a predominant teaching style in residents suggests these individuals are learning to be teachers. The adaptation of faculty teaching methods to account for variations in resident learning styles may promote a better learning environment and more efficient faculty–resident interaction. Additional, multi-institutional studies using these tools are needed to elucidate these findings fully.