Learning Styles and Study Strategies Among Pre-Clerkship Caribbean Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study
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Learning styles include active-reflective, visual-verbal, sensing-intuitive, and sequential-global, based on the Index of Learning Styles (ILS). Understanding learning style preferences and study behaviors among medical students may provide insights into how learners engage with educational materials and self-directed learning strategies. To describe learning style preferences among pre-clerkship medical students and examine associations between these preferences and self-reported study strategies. A cross-sectional study distributed a questionnaire to basic-sciences students at Saint James School of Medicine, measuring learning styles via the validated ILS. Students self-reported usage frequency of five review strategies: Anki, USMLE questions, mnemonics, concept mapping, and re-reading. Chi-square analyses were used to explore associations between learning style preferences and study strategy use. All statistical analyses were done using IBM SPSS V.31. Of 124 participants, 56.5% preferred active learning, followed by visual learning (79.8%), sensing learning (81.6%), and sequential learning (54%). USMLE-style questions and reading/summarizing were used frequently and extensively (49% and 48% of participants, respectively), whereas concept mapping was rarely used in students’ study and revision (69.4%). Weak but statistically significant associations were observed between sensing preferences and mnemonic use (p=0.043), and between sequential preferences and moderate Anki use (p=0.037). There was a slight tendency for sensing learners to favor mnemonics, while sequential learners favored structured instruments like Anki. These findings suggest limited associations between certain learning style preferences and self-reported study strategies. Further research incorporating academic performance outcomes is needed before educational recommendations can be made.
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