Do Learning Styles Influenced by Gender: A Qualitative Study Among Physiology Undergraduate Medical Students

Abstract

Introduction
 Current and future trends in medical learning enforce huge burden of mastering a different set of competencies among medical student. Furthermore, the important task in medical education isto provide adequate and satisfactory student learning. Thus, better awareness of learning style preferences and various factors (such as gender) influencing learning styles, can help in delivery of rewarding, satisfying and pleasant learning experience to the students.
 Aim
 The study was planned with the aim of assessing the influence of gender on learning style preferences among Undergraduate Medical Students of Physiology.
 Materials and Method
 In this cross-sectional study among 100 undergraduate medical students of physiology, Visual, Aural, Read/write and Kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire version 7.8 was used to collect information of students’ learning style preferences. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the variables. Chi-square test was performed to evaluate the influence of gender on learning style preferences.
 Results
 In the study, 82.22%Males and 68.75% females exhibited multiple sensory preferences. Furthermore only 17.77%Male, 31.25% Female, preferred a single sensory modality for receiving information. However gender differences were NOT significant.
 Conclusion
 Most students both male and female had preferences for multimodal learning style. Furthermore gender had no significant association with learning style preference.