Evaluation of Learning Styles of Clinical Dental Students in Ardabil University of Medical Sciences and Determining Their Relationship with Satisfaction with Education Status

Education and learning are affected by different variables, such as learning style, which can affect educational performance and higher education output. This study aimed to evaluate the learning styles of dental students and their satisfaction with education at the dental school.

This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 109 clinical dental students in 2016-2017. After completing the Kolb learning style questionnaire, the satisfaction of students with the education at the dental school was assessed with one question scored in a range of 0-10 (from completely dissatisfied to completely satisfied). In addition, a P-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.

In this study, the learning styles of converging (57.8%), assimilating (21.6%), diverging (12.8%), and accommodating (7.8%) were the most-to-least used styles, respectively. According to the results, no relationship was observed between the learning model and variables of gender, GPA, and academic semester. Moreover, there was no significant association between mean educational satisfaction of students (4.8±2.6) and their learning style (P=0.4).

According to the results of the present study, converging and assimilating learning styles were the most frequently applied learning models among dental students. It is recommended that problem-focused education along with lecture-based teaching be applied as a suitable training method.