Assessment of learning styles of undergraduate medical students and its effect on examination outcomes - a cross-sectional study done in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan.

Abstract

To assess the learning style preferences of undergraduate medical students and the effect of the preferred learning style on examination outcomes. The cross-sectional study was conducted from April to September 2018, at Poonch Medical College, Rawlakot, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir Medical College, Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, and comprised students from 2nd to 5th year. Data was collected using 16 item visual, aural, read/write and kinaesthetic questionnaire version 7.0. Data was analysed using SPSS 23. Of the 406 students, 203(50%) belonged to each of the two colleges. None of the students preferred unimodal or bimodal learning styles, while 191(94.1%) at Poonch Medical College and 189(93.1%) at Azad Jammu and Kashmir Medical College preferred quad-modal and the remaining preferred trimodal style. Among the combination of learning styles, aural in different combination was preferred by 201(99.01%) of Poonch Medical College students and 202(99.51%) at the other institution. There was no statistically significant relationship between the preferred learning style and examination outcomes (p>0.05). Most of the participants preferred multiple sensory modalities for learning.