Learning style predilection among health professional learners - A comparative study among varied course groups in a medical college

Abstract

Background: The learning behavior of an individual is attributed to one’s learning style. With varied learning styles been evident, identification of the best learning modality is a must to upgrade the student’s knowledge. This study pertains to seven sensory modalities of learning such as visual, verbal, aural, physical, logical, social, and solitary. Aim and Objective: The aim of the study was to identification and comparison of learning style preferences among three categories of undergraduate health learners and gender differences in their learning styles. Materials and Methods: The study participants were 444 – 1st-year students of both the genders from Medicine, Physiotherapy, and Nursing course groups studying in ACS. The Medical College was included in the study. The Memletics questionnaire containing 70 questions was distributed and the students were encouraged to choose their best-preferred answer. Student identity, gender, and the course assigned were noted. Results: Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software version 23. One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed Medicine, Physiotherapy and Nursing group of students preferred multimodal learning. Further analysis with multiple linear regression model to compare the learning modality between the three groups showed visual, social and solitary modalities of learning were the best preferred learning style in common among all the three groups of students. Both the gender groups preferred social modality of learning in common. One way ANOVA results showed a significant difference between male and female students with regard to visual (P = 0.023), verbal (P = 0.000), and logical (P = 0.002) modalities of learning. Conclusion: With multimodal learning behavior been evident, implementation of appropriate teaching modalities to cater the students need, as well, exposing them to newer learning modalities will strengthen the teaching-learning process, their academic performance, and educative outcome to make the individual a complete professional.