ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING STYLES PREFERRED BY MEDICAL STUDENTS USING VARK QUESTIONNAIRE

*Dr. Syed Sheraz Ali, Dr. Junaid Ali, Dr. Waris Khan, Dr. Paras Ali Shah, Dr. Ibrar Ahmad and Dr. Qaisar Ali Khan

ABSTRACT

Background: Among the numerous available methods in assessing different learning styles of students, the „visual-aural-read/write-kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire‟ is the most simple, freely available method that can be easily administered to facilitate students understanding their learning behaviors. Aims and Objectives: Our aim focuses upon the learning style preferred by medical students of KMU-IMS Kohat. Settings & Design: Descriptive Cross-sectional study carried out in a Public Sector Medical College (KIMS) located in KPK (Pakistan). Materials and Methods: A total of 237 undergraduate medical students of our college were encouraged to take part in the study using modified “VARK questionnaire”. The participated students were then categorized accordingly for principle learning modality used. Statistical Analysis: Data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel (2019) and SPSS (version 25.0) software. RESULT: In our study the majority of students preferred Unimodal preference (74%) with Kinesthetic (61%) predominant modality, followed by aural (22%), visual (10%) and read/write (7%). Those who were multimodal (26%) in their learning styles, majority were Bimodal (15%) followed by Quad modal (8%) and trimodal (3%).

Keywords: Learning styles, Medical students, Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, Kinesthetic.