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ISSN: 2394-4137 (E) 2394-6318 (P)

IJIMS.2019.120

Type of Article: Original Research

Volume 6; Issue 6: 2019

Page No.: 846-852

DOI: 10.16965/ijims.2019.120

STUDY OF LEARNING STYLE PREFERENCES IN STUDENTS OF DIFFERENT PHASES OF MEDICAL UNDERGRADUATE COURSE IN RELATION TO GENDER AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

Ekramuddin 1, Gauhar Hussain *2, Ibrahim Farooque 3, MD Faisal Iqubal 4.

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy, F.H. Medical College, NH-2, Etmadpur, Agra, U.P., India.

*2 Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, F.H. Medical College, NH-2, Etmadpur, Agra, U.P., India.

3 Professor, Department of Physiology, Government Medical College, Shahjahanpur, U.P. , India.

4 Demonstrator, Department of Biochemistry, F.H. Medical College, NH-2, Etmadpur, Agra, U.P., India.

Corresponding Author: Dr Gauhar Hussain, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, F.H. Medical College, NH-2, Etmadpur, Agra, 283202, U.P., India. Mobile: 9837512840 E-Mail: g_h303@yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT:

Background: To become effective faculty, he should understand a learner’s characteristics and their learning style. Matching students’ learning styles with a learning framework has resulted in improved test scores. This study was initiated to identify the learning styles of MBBS students and explored the relationship between learning style preferences and students’ gender and academic achievement.

Methods: We conducted cross-sectional study on students from the medical college studying in MBBS second, final prof (part-I) and final prof (part-II). The VARK questionnaire was used to identify the learning style preference. Based on the instructions given for the VARK inventory, scores were calculated to determine the predominant learning modality used by each individual.

Results: The students of MBBS showed multiple learning preferences (52%) only slightly more than unimodal style (48 %). None of the students showed quadrimodal learning preference. In 2nd professional students, read-write was preferred mode followed by auditory while in final prof (both part 1 & 2) kinesthetic /read-write learning style was preferred in unimodal types. Female students scored higher in all four components as compared to male students. There was no relationship between learning style preference and academic achievement.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that many medical students at this single medical institution prefer to learn using all VARK modalities. There can be different type of learners in a single batch of medical students, so educators’ awareness of various learning styles of students is a must. Identifying differences in learning styles could potentially be used in medical curriculum.

Key words: Learning style preferences, VARK questionnaire, bimodal learners, trimodal learners.

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