Learning Styles and their importance in the development of clinical skills of dental students: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: professional schools of dentistry must generate and guarantee the learning and development of clinical skills in students in order to achieve an adequate graduate profile. This challenge implies the need to know the learning styles of students in order to generate strategies and improve learning.Objective: this study aims to analyse the importance of learning styles in the development of clinical skills of dental students at a private university in Cusco.Method: a descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out, the population consisted of 215 students in the seventh, eighth and ninth semesters of the clinical area of the School of Stomatology, with a sample of 139 students, using the survey technique and the questionnaire as an instrument for the variables under study, as well as data processing using SPSS software, v. 26.Results: it is known that 70,5 % of the students' learning styles have a high level of management of their learning styles, with 41,7 % in the reflective style, 67,6 % in the theoretical style and 56,1 % in the pragmatic style, which implies that according to their educational experience their style predominates; in addition to the importance of learning styles in the development of clinical skills.Conclusion: clinical skills are significantly associated with the learning style possessed by the students