Abstract

Background: The challenge of imparting large amount of knowledge within a limited time period in a way it is perceived, retained, and effectively interpreted by students is considerable. This has resulted in crucial changes in the field of medical education with a shift from didactic, “teacher centered” to use of interactive, “student centered” learning. In context to this, knowledge of learning styles can be useful as it fosters student-centered learning. Knowledge on learners’ learning styles is a vastly underutilized approach in a medical classroom. Aims and Objectives: The current study was undertaken to identify the preferred learning styles of medical students.
Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Permission from VARK developers, to use VARK Inventory Tool version 7.1 in the study was taken. Learning preferences st were determined using VARK scores in the 1 year medical undergraduates.
Results: Of the 89 who participated out of 100, 39.32% were male. Mean age of participants was 17.6 years. More than 80% students studied in state board, 10.11% were from CBSE, while 9.89% students were from ICSE and International Board, respectively. There was no association of gender with learning styles (P > 0.05). The results showed that majority of students, i.e., 61.00% preferred multiple learning styles and the predominant learning style identified was kinesthetic (33%), followed by auditory (16%), then visual (14.6%), and lastly read-write (7.86%).
Conclusions: There can be different types of learners in a batch. Educators’ awareness of various learning styles of students and their efforts toward designing “teaching-learning” methods according to learning styles of students may help in creating significant learning environment in classrooms.