A Survey on Learning Styles of Undergraduate Medical Students and its Associated Factors

Abstract

Background: Global education curriculum is gradually shifting from teacher centric to learner centric approaches. Each of the learners is different in his/her preference of the style of learning. Aims: The present study aims to decipher the learning styles of learners of 1st year MBBS students studying in Pt. JNM Medical College, Raipur, and also to find its association with gender and past academic achievement. Patients and Methods: The present cross sectional descriptive study was conducted by self administered visual aural read kinaesthetic (VARK) questionnaire version 8.01. Test of association was done to illicit any significant difference between learning style preferences with gender or percentage in Class 12th. Results: Amongst 188, 184 students participated in the study, and thus, response rate was 97.9%. Amongst these participants, 41.3% were females and mean Class 12th percentage was 85.4 ± 8.66. Seventy one percent of the subjects were found to have multimodal learning preferences whereas 29% were unimodal learners. Kinaesthetic components were maximum whereas read/write learning components were minimum. The frequency of learners was maximum for K (Kinaesthetic) followed by VARK (Visual Aural Read Kinaesthetic) and AK (Aural Kinaesthetic) type of learners. There was no significant association between type of learners with gender or academic performance in Class 12th with P > 0.05 by non parametric Mann–Whitney U-test. Conclusion: Most of the learners had kinaesthetic components, and thus, teaching–learning methods should be accordingly adapted to suit the learning styles of the subjects.