Does learning style influence performance in objective structured clinical examinations?

Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) aim to assess medical students’ clinical skills rather than just their theoretical knowledge. We propose a study between the learning style of second-cycle medical students and their performance in OSCEs.

During their internship at our hospital, students were invited to complete the LSQ-Fa, a questionnaire designed to identify their preferences among 4 learning styles: active, reflective, theoretical, and pragmatic. In parallel, an evaluation of their clinical skills was conducted through OSCEs. We then performed an analysis to establish a correlation between learning styles and OSCE performance, to better understand how learning preferences influence academic outcomes.

Between April 2021 and January 2023, 55 students were evaluated by OSCEs and had completed the LSQ-Fa. The average OSCE score was 14.8/20. The theoretical learning style was predominant in 47.3% of students, followed by active (27.3%), reflective (14.6%), and pragmatic (5.4%), with 3 cases of mixed active and theoretical styles (5.4%). No significant correlation was observed between learning style and OSCE performance (p = 0.28), although students with a pragmatic style recorded a slightly higher average.

This study highlights the importance of considering diverse learning styles in the design of medical education programs.