Abstract
BackgroundLearning styles and approaches of individual undergraduate medical students vary considerably and as a consequence, their learning needs also differ from one student to another. This study was conducted to identify different learning styles and approaches of pre-clinical, undergraduate medical students and also to determine the relationships of learning preferences with performances in the summative examinations.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 419 pre-clinical, undergraduate medical students of the International Medical University (IMU) in Kuala Lumpur. The number of students from Year 2 was 217 while that from Year 3 was 202. The Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, Kinesthetic (VARK) and the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) questionnaires were used for data collection.ResultsThis study revealed that 343 students (81.9%) had unimodal learning style, while the remaining 76 (18.1%) used a multimodal learning style. Among the unimodal learners, a majority (30.1%) were of Kinesthetic (K) type. Among the middle and high achievers in summative examinations, a majority had unimodal (Kinaesthetic) learning style (30.5%) and were also strategic/deep learners (79.4%). However, the learning styles and approaches did not contribute significantly towards the learning outcomes in summative examinations.ConclusionsA majority of the students in this study had Unimodal (Kinesthetic) learning style. The learning preferences (styles and approaches) did not contribute significantly to the learning outcomes. Future work to re-assess the viability of these learning preferences (styles and approaches) after the incorporation of teaching-learning instructions tailored specifically to the students will be beneficial to help medical teachers in facilitating students to become more capable learners.
Highlights
Learning styles and approaches of individual undergraduate medical students vary considerably and as a consequence, their learning needs differ from one student to another
The probability sample size for finite population was calculated by using confidence interval = 95%, absolute precision of estimate = 5% and prevalence rate of any one of the learning styles among the students = 50%
This study revealed that the learning preferences of the students in this study did not contribute significantly towards their learning outcomes
Summary
Learning styles and approaches of individual undergraduate medical students vary considerably and as a consequence, their learning needs differ from one student to another. This study was conducted to identify different learning styles and approaches of pre-clinical, undergraduate medical students and to determine the relationships of learning preferences with performances in the summative examinations. The learning styles and learning approaches constitute the learning preferences of undergraduate medical students. The Visual (V) learner learns best by visualizing the information e.g., use of charts, diagram and mindmaps. The Auditory (A) learner learns best by hearing the information. The Read/Write (R) learner learns best when the information is displayed in words. The Kinaesthetic (K) learner learns best with practice or simulation [2]
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