Abstract

Background: Globally, research on education states that there will be unique learning style for an individual and it differs from person to person. There is a need for the students and even the teachers a starting place for thinking about and understand how students learn to achieve the maximum benefits from existing various modern teaching methodologies.

Objectives: The present study was undertaken to assess the learning styles among undergraduate (UG) medical students of Mahadevappa Rampure Medical College, Kalaburagi, Karnataka.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among UG medical students belonging to two consecutive batches in the 1st and 2nd year of medical training were invited to participate in the exercise. Of the total 250 students who invited, 213 (85.2%) participated, and the data were collected by administering a printed form of Version 7.8 visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic questionnaire. The sample size was drawn using convenient sampling technique. Learning style preference was assessed depending on the score for each question. Statistical analysis was done in terms of percentages and proportions and using chi-square tests.

Results: The majority of students in our study was unimodal learners (54%). The predominant sensory modality of learning was kinesthetic (65.2%), followed by aural (20%). Unimodality was the preferred learning style more among males (58.3%), but females were more kinesthetic learners (75%).

Conclusion: We use a combination of teaching methods in our daily routine as teachers, but there has not been an active effort to determine whether these methods adequately meet the requirements of different types of learners. We hope that the data from the present study will help us to adopt better approaches in teaching and training the students and make learning a more fruitful experience.

Key words: Visual-aural-read/write-kinesthetic; Learning Style; Gender