Learning-Style Preferences Across Clinical and Surgical Specialties in a Brazilian Medical Residency Program

Medical residency is a demanding stage of specialty training characterized by extensive clinical exposure, heavy workloads, and ongoing knowledge acquisition. Characterizing residents’ learning-style preferences may help residency programs refine their educational strategies and better address residents’ needs. This study assessed learning-style preferences using the Felder–Soloman Index of Learning Styles in 152 residents from clinical and surgical specialties in a Brazilian medical residency program. In the overall sample, the predominant preferences were sensing (90.79%), visual (73.68%), active (62.50%), and sequential (70.39%). Clinical and surgical residents differed significantly only in the understanding domain: sequential preference was more frequent among clinical than surgical residents (80.0% [95% CI: 68.7–87.9] vs. 63.2% [95% CI: 52.7–72.6]). The limited variation between groups suggests that most residents shared a broadly similar learning profile, although some cognitive-processing preferences may differ according to specialty-related demands. These findings may inform diversified educational strategies that combine visual resources, practical activities, and structured progression across clinical and surgical training contexts.