Medical Students Worldwide Mostly Prefer Multimodal Learning, Review Finds

Medical students across the world show their strongest preference for a multimodal learning style, according to a systematic review published in BMC Medical Education. The review, led by Somayeh Rajabzadeh and colleagues, analyzed 123 studies covering 32,599 medical students from 33 countries, and found that multimodal learning was the most common style among the students studied.

The study was a systematic review conducted using the PRISMA framework. The researchers searched three databases, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, without time limits, and selected 123 study titles for analysis. The quality of the included studies was assessed using the AXIS tool.

In terms of geography, the largest number of studies included in the review came from India, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and the United States. This distribution reflects where research on medical students’ learning styles has been most concentrated, although the review ultimately drew on evidence from 33 countries globally.

Methodologically, the majority of the reviewed studies, 58.6 percent, were cross-sectional in design. This means most of the underlying evidence captures learning style preferences at a single point in time for each group of students surveyed, rather than tracking changes in preferences over the course of medical education.

The reviewed studies mainly used five different models to identify students’ learning styles. Among these, the VARK model was the most common.

After multimodal learning, the review found that unimodal, convergent, assimilator, and visual learning styles were also among the most common styles reported among medical students, in that order. These categories come from the different learning style models applied across the included studies, which is why the review reports a range of style labels rather than a single unified typology.

The authors conclude that students’ greatest preference was for learning through a multimodal style. They note that students who use multiple senses and skills in the learning process are likely to have a higher academic success rate than other students, an observation the review frames as a likelihood rather than a demonstrated causal effect.

Based on these findings, the authors argue that rather than categorizing students by their learning styles, university professors should focus on multimodal teaching. They suggest that following instructional design principles and embracing diverse methods for delivering content can help ensure that complex material is accessible and understandable for all learners.

The review’s limitations, as stated by the authors, included the lack of a meta-analysis, language bias, publication bias, and heterogeneity of models across the included studies. Because the underlying studies used different learning style frameworks, the pooled findings aggregate results that are not directly comparable at the level of individual style categories.

The authors also note that studying learning styles in the future with new research approaches could help provide a better and more accurate understanding of the concept. The article was published as open access research on 16 September 2026 and is citable with a permanent DOI, with the published version subject to further editorial updates.

Subject of Research: Learning style typologies among medical students worldwide, based on a systematic review of 123 studies from 33 countries.

Article Title: Typology of learning styles in medical students: a systematic review of 33 countries

Article References: Rajabzadeh, S., Azizi, S. M., Shamsabadi, M. A., Shahabian, M., & Mansoory, M. S. (2026). Typology of learning styles in medical students: a systematic review of 33 countries. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-10390-9

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12909-026-10390-9

Keywords: medical education, learning styles, systematic review, multimodal learning, VARK model, medical students, cross-sectional studies, instructional design, PRISMA, AXIS tool, Typology, learning