Learning styles and teaching perspectives of Canadian pharmacy practice residents and faculty preceptors.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize and compare learning styles of pharmacy practice residents and their faculty preceptors, and identify teaching perspectives of faculty preceptors.
METHODS: Twenty-nine pharmacy residents and 306 pharmacy faculty members in British Columbia were invited to complete the Pharmacists' Inventory of Learning Styles (PILS). Faculty preceptors also were asked to complete the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI).
RESULTS: One hundred percent of residents and 61% of faculty members completed the PILS, and 31% of faculty members completed the TPI. The most common dominant learning style among residents and faculty preceptors was assimilator, and 93% were assimilators, convergers, or both. The distribution of dominant learning styles between residents and faculty members was not different (p=0.77). The most common dominant teaching perspective among faculty members was apprenticeship.
CONCLUSION: Residents and preceptors mostly exhibited learning styles associated with abstract over concrete thinking or watching over doing. Residency programs should steer residents more toward active learning and doing, and maximize interactions with patients and other caregivers.