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Lynchburg Journal of Medical Science

Specialty

Medical Education

Advisor

Dr. Michael Roscoe

Abstract

Impact of Tailored Educational Strategies on Academic Performance

This article explores the impact of customizing education to accommodate different learning styles and its potential to enhance Physician Assistant (PA) student success. Tailored learning strategies can address diverse learners, leading to improved retention of medical knowledge. PA students who retain information become better-prepared healthcare providers, which in turn leads to improved patient outcomes. The literature review highlights Kolb's learning style inventory, which includes visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile learning styles. However, with a deeper look into learning styles, they can be further defined as sensing and intuitive perception, visual and verbal input, inductive and deductive organization, active and reflective processing, and sequential and global understanding. Lecture-based learning (LBL), commonly used in universities, often fails to address the full spectrum of learning styles. Traditional lecture-style engagement fails to address sensing perception, visual input, inductive organization, active processing, and global understanding learning styles. Incorporating active learning methods into the medical curriculum can engage students more effectively, leading to increased satisfaction and improved grade point averages (GPA). Instructors play a crucial role by designing diverse activities tailored to visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic learners, ensuring that students feel valued and integral to the learning process. The complexity resides in determining the specific approach to each topic taught during a PA student's didactic and clinical years, a dilemma that remains at the forefront of educational challenges.

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