In recent decades, a noticeable trend has emerged in medical and dental schools to adjust their curricula to promote learning strategies and habits geared towards long-term knowledge retention. This systematic review therefore sought to examine whether different teaching methods influence students’ preferred learning approaches (deep, strategic, and surface approach) and indirectly affect their academic performance. Furthermore, it provides a comprehensive overview of the inconsistencies evident in previous literature regarding the relationship between learning approaches and academic performance of medical and dental students. A thorough search across eight databases yielded 49 relevant studies published between the years 2000 and 2023. The majority of studies revealed that whilst deep and strategic learners tend to excel at medical or dental school, surface learners appear to struggle under intense workload and pressure. Hence, a common consensus emerged amongst the existing literature that there is a relative benefit in attempting to guide students towards deep and strategic learning habits and to minimise surface-related learning strategies. However, results also conveyed that merely modifying the teaching methods used in medical and dental schools has limited merit. As such, the results emphasised the lack of a ‘one-size-fits-all’ teaching method. Common factors influencing learning approaches were subsequently identified, and based on these findings, an outlook was put forth to integrate a cognitive neuroscience approach into higher education. These directions for future investigations aim to help students reach their full potential by understanding the processes underlying efficient learning and by being mindful of respective encouraging and discouraging factors.

近几十年来，医学和牙科学校出现了一种明显的趋势，即调整课程，以促进旨在长期保留知识的学习策略和习惯。因此，本系统综述旨在探讨不同的教学方法是否会影响学生偏好的学习方法（深度、策略和表面方法）并间接影响他们的学业成绩。此外，它还全面概述了先前文献中关于医学和牙科学生学习方法与学业成绩之间关系的明显不一致之处。对 8 个数据库的彻底搜索得出了 2000 年至 2023 年间发表的 49 项相关研究。大多数研究表明，虽然深度学习者和战略学习者往往在医学院或牙科学校表现出色，但表面学习者似乎在繁重的工作量和压力下挣扎。因此，现有文献中出现了一个共同的共识，即尝试引导学生养成深入的、战略性的学习习惯并尽量减少与表面相关的学习策略是相对有利的。然而，结果还表明，仅仅改变医学院和牙科学校使用的教学方法的优点是有限的。因此，结果强调缺乏“一刀切”的教学方法。随后确定了影响学习方法的常见因素，并根据这些发现提出了将认知神经科学方法整合到高等教育中的前景。这些未来研究的方向旨在通过了解有效学习的过程并注意各自的鼓励和阻碍因素，帮助学生充分发挥潜力。