A Study of Learning Style Preferences among First Year Undergraduate Medical Students Using VARK Model

Abstract

Introduction: Medical students have a wide range of diversity in their learning preferences. This has been always a challenge for the teachers to meet the demands of all the medical students. VARK (Visual, Aural, Read/write and Kinaesthetic way of learning styles) is a learning inventory grouped under “instructional preference” model. Methods: This study analysed the learning style and approaches to learning among the first year undergraduate students in a tertiary care teaching hospital using VARK questionnaire version. Results: Our study revealed that, unimodal learning preference was among 48% of the students and multimodal learning styles being with 52% of students. Among the unimodal learning preferences, kinaesthetic and auditory learning styles were predominant (35% and 34% respectively). Among multimodal learning style preferences Kinaesthetic, Aural (KA) and Visual, Aural, Kinaesthetic (VAK) styles were predominant. There was no difference in the learning preferences among the sexes (p = 0.208). Conclusion: Since the most preferred learning styles were kinaesthetic and auditory, the strategies employed by students could be recordings of lectures, audio recordings of power point presentations, increased frequency of early clinical exposure to patients in wards and use of models and problem solving questionnaires. This will also help the teachers to act in accordance with students need and guide them in achieving their academic goals.