Learning Style Preferences of Medical Students in Perdana University-Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland School of Medicine, Malaysia

Background: Learning styles referred to individuals’ preferred methods to gather, process, interpret, organize and analyses information. The visual, aural, read/write and kinesthetic (VARK) learning inventory developed by Neil Fleming provides learners with a profile of their preferred modes of taking in information.

Aims: The aim of this study is to assess the learning style preferences of medical students in (PU-RCSI) and objectives are to compare learning style preference difference in terms of gender and level of medical education (pre-clinical year versus clinical year).

Study Design: University based cross sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Perdana University - Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland School of Medicine (PU-RCSI), Malaysia from April to June 2016. VARK inventory (Version 7.1) which was used to sample sensory preferences of learning with the permission of the author.

Methodology: Pretested Structured questionnaires were used for demographic information and students’ preferences of different teaching-learning methods and VARK inventory (Version 7.1) was used to sample sensory preferences of learning with the permission of the author. The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board. Data were analyzed by using SPSS, version 22.0.

Results: There were 259 students participated in study and majority of the participants 225(86.7%) were aged group between (21-25) and 166(64.1%) were female students. For preferred teaching style, the students enjoyed learning in small group teaching (48.6%) and bedside clinical teaching (47.9%) compare with lectures. Regarding learning style preference, most of the students 165 (63.7%) had multimodal learning style and 94 (36.3%) students preferred unimodal. Among the multimodal learners, the most preferred mode was quadri-modal 90 (34.7%), followed by bimodal 38 (14.7%) and trimodal 37 (14.3%). Of the unimodal learners, the most preferred modality was Kinesthetic.

Conclusion: The majority of PU-RCSI medical students preferred to study alone. They preferred multiple modalities with Kinesthetic being the most prevalent mode. There was no significant difference in VARK modalities in terms of gender and academic year.