IAMSE 2002 Annual Meeting - Dr. John Pelley

FOCUS SESSION TITLE:	Understanding and Adapting to Multiple Student Learning Styles

SESSION LEADER(S):	John Pelley, Ph.D., Texas Tech University Health Science Center, Lubbock, TX, U.S.A.

OTHER PRESENTERS:

HANDOUTS or SLIDES

This session addressed the influence of student learning styles on both teaching and learning in medical school. Data were presented to show that Myers Briggs Personality Type influences academic achievement and that the most dominant influence is the dimension that involves a preference for either giving attention to the specifics (sensing types) or giving attention to the big picture (intuitive types). The intuitive types tend to learn by forming relationships, a more integrative level of cognitive complexity than the literal, or memorization, level of learning preferred by the sensing type student. Furthermore, integrative learning facilitates more effective long term memory through multiple associations.

Additional introductory topics were the natural ability of people to develop thinking skills in areas opposite to their preferences.

The main focus of the session was a discussion of the strategies that take advantage of the natural ability of sensing types to develop learning strategies that promote integrative learning. The discussion was then confined to two primary strategies for promoting integrative learning:

Concept mapping – a system for visual/spatial construction of multiple levels of cognitive complexity
Team study – a system for weekly self-directed, inquiry-based team study

Concept mapping was presented as a way of restructuring reading style for more effective deductive reasoning. Sensing types prefer to read linearly through material and focus on what is literally presented. There is an absence of discovery of important relationships unless they are presented as facts. The need to organize a map around the big picture requires that reading also include active learning through survey and discovery. Dramatic improvements in academic achievement are reported by sensing types. Intuitive students also benefit from this method by giving them a visual structure to include facts they normally overlook.

Team study was presented as a way of helping sensing types learn to think by verbalizing their learning in conjunction with intuitive type students in the study team. Intuitive students also benefit by being reminded by the sensing types of all the facts they have overlooked. Students engaged in this process must understand their contribution to the team for it to have maximum effectiveness.

The team process was discussed in terms of the independent integrative nature of the process, best described as a weekend “rotating oral exam.” One student at a time is questioned about selected, high yield topics from the material presented during the previous week. All discussion is aimed at asking or answering questions and does not involve routine review.

The dialogue among participants showed an enthusiasm for incorporating concept mapping examples in their teaching to help promote its use during study. Several tips for mapping in lecture included the need to construct the map from the beginning and for restricting the maps to summaries for the students to complete later. Also, a general consensus that much of what was presented was not general knowledge in the medical education community and that it had potential to solve many academic advisement problems.