The effects of learning and teaching style interactions on student success in athletic training clinical education

Educating athletic trainers involves a great deal of hands-on clinical experience where students learn to combine classroom knowledge with psychomotor skills. This study investigated whether interactions between students and clinical instructors, with regard to learning and teaching styles, have an effect on student success during the clinical experience. In order to measure student success, the Athletic Training Competency Test ( ATCT) was designed and developed based on the cognitive and psychomotor Competencies in Athletic Training.;Subjects for this study included 64 students enrolled in a clinical experience and 34 ATCs recognized as clinical instructors at four CAAHEP institutions. Learning style preferences of students and teaching style preferences of clinical instructors were identified using the Learning Profile Indicator and the Teaching Style Inventory. Clinical instructors evaluated their students with the ATCT at the beginning and end of an academic term to determine the student's level of success during the clinical experience. Clinical instructors also did an initial estimate of their students' potential for success as high, average, or low. Student/clinical instructor pairs were grouped together by the level of match or mismatch between style preferences. Results of the ATCT were converted to gain scores and analyzed using ANOVA to determine whether the matching of preferred style influenced student success.;Chi-square results (df = 4) = 83.18, p < .001, indicate that students had a preference toward sensing-thinking and sensing-feeling learning styles. Clinical instructors had a preferred teaching style of sensing-thinking and intuitive-thinking, X2 (df = 5) = 32.35, p < .001. There was a significant interaction effect between match/mismatch levels and the initial instructor estimate of student potential for success on gain scores, F (1,62) = 4.64, p < .05.;Matching learning and teaching style compensated for the clinical instructor's initial rating of the student as low/average. Matching styles closed the gap between the gain scores of students rated as high and those rated as low/average. Emphasis should be placed on learning and teaching styles when considering the placement of athletic training students with clinical instructors. Particular consideration should be given to students of average to low potential for success in order to provide the most effective learning environment possible.