Distribution of learning styles and their relationship with sociodemographic and academic variables in Dentistry students: a cross-sectional study.
Abstract
Introduction: Understanding learning styles among health sciences students is relevant for informing educational reflection and recognizing the diversity of learning approaches. In dentistry, training progresses from predominantly theoretical stages to increasingly complex clinical settings, making it important to examine how learning preferences are distributed throughout the educational trajectory. Objective: To analyze the distribution of learning styles among dental students from a private university in Santiago, Chile, in 2025, considering their relationship with gender, age, and academic year. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 177 first- to fifth-year dental students (response rate: 53.8%). The Honey-Alonso Learning Styles Questionnaire (CHAEA) was administered. Internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha (α=0.592–0.729). Nonparametric tests were used for comparisons according to gender and academic year, Spearman’s correlation was used to assess associations with age, and post-hoc analyses were performed using Bonferroni-adjusted Mann–Whitney tests. Effect sizes were estimated using eta squared (η²). Results: The theoretical learning style was the most frequent (33.9%), followed by the reflective (28.8%), pragmatic (19.2%), and active (18.1%) styles. No significant differences were observed in the distribution of predominant learning styles according to gender (p = 0.051), whereas significant differences were found across academic years for all four learning styles (p < 0.001), with large effect sizes (η²=0.14–0.33). The most pronounced differences were observed between the third and fourth academic years, coinciding with the beginning of clinical training. The pragmatic style showed a moderate positive correlation with age (r=0.526, p<0.001), whereas the theoretical style showed a moderate negative correlation (r=−0.432, p<0.001). Conclusions: Learning styles differ according to the stage of dental education, with the greatest differences observed between preclinical and clinical years. Although the cross-sectional design does not allow the assessment of individual changes over time, the findings support the implementation of diversified teaching strategies tailored to different stages of the educational process.
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