Using Learning Styles to Evaluate First-Year Pharmacy Students' Preferences Toward Different Activities Associated with the Problem-Based Learning Approach

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a relationship existed between student learning styles and their preferences toward the various activities associated with the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach in the first-year pharmacy curriculum at the University of British Columbia. These PBL activities comprise group discussions, independent research, in-class critical-thinking and group report writing. In the fall semester of the 2000-2001 academic year, first-year pharmacy students completed Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory. Student preferences toward the various activities associated with the PBL tutorials were evaluated based upon the results of student surveys. Results from these surveys revealed that Divergers indicated the lowest preference overall for the activities associated with the PBL program in the first-year pharmacy curriculum compared to the other three learning style groups. Convergers showed strong preferences for these activities. While the Convergers and Divergers indicated opposing preferences overall for the activities associated with the PBL, the Assimilators and Accommodators indicated overall positive responses to the PBL activities. These findings may be used in future studies to evaluate whether student preferences for certain learning environments are correlated to their academic success as measured by grades.