Most of the previous studies which have been done in the medical arena on the learning styles have been conducted in other countries and the results have shown variations, may be due to the use of different teaching methodologies at the premedical level. The learning style information can also benefit the students as it would help them in formulating the appropriate learning strategies for enhancing their learning. Having knowledge on the learners’ learning styles is a vastly underutilized approach towards an improvement in the classroom instructions. A less explored but perhaps a more significant factor could be the students’ learning styles. The students’ preference for different teaching-learning methods had been attributed in the past to a number of reasons such as familiarity with the method, a positive outcome, etc. Various instructional methods which are used for teaching the first year medical students include lectures, dissections, practicals, tutorials, etc. The kinaesthetic learners like to acquire information through experience and practice. The read-write learners prefer to see the written words. The auditory learners like to hear information. The visual learners process the information best if they can see it. VARK is an acronym for the Visual (V), Auditory (A), Read/Write (R) and the Kinaesthetic (K) sensory modalities. The VARK model which was developed by Fleming and Mills provides the learners with a profile of their learning styles, based on the sensory modalities which are involved in taking in information. The term, ‘learning style’ describes an individual’s preferred method of gathering, processing, interpreting, organizing and analyzing information. Therefore, it is not only desirable but also essential for educators to recognize that adults have different learning styles and that they should tailor instructions to the characteristic ways in which the adults prefer to learn. from a teacher-centred learning to a student-centred learning. Recent years have seen a change in the trends of medical education from pedagogy to andragogy i.e. The educators’ awareness of the various learning styles of the students and their efforts towards matching the teaching and learning styles may help in creating an effective learning environment for all the students. The most preferred teaching methodology was practical/dissection (39%) and tutorial was the least preferred one (12%).Ĭonclusion: One single approach to teaching does not work for every student or even for most of the students. The most common unimodal preference was kinaesthetic, followed by visual, auditory and read and write. 39% of the respondents had one strong (unimodal) learning preference. Among them, 41%, 14% and 6% preferred the bimodal, trimodal and the quadrimodal ways of information presentation. Results: The majority (61%) of the students had multimodal VARK preferences. lectures, tutorials, demonstrations and practicals/dissections from the most preferred choice to the least preferred one. The students were also asked to rank the various teaching methodologies viz. The VARK questionnaire, version 7.1 was used to categorize the learning preferences/modes as visual (V), auditory (A), read and write (R) and kinaesthetic (K). Method: A cross sectional study was conducted on 100 first semester medical students who were enrolled at SMS & R, Sharda University, India. This interest is spurred by a desire to help the students to become capable and successful learners.Īim: The aim of this study was to determine the preferred learning styles of medical students as well as their preferences of specific teaching-learning methods. Educational researchers have shown an increasing interest in the learning styles, the related instructional methods and the andrgogical teaching techniques. The learning style is an individual’s consistent way of perceiving, processing and retaining new information. Introduction: The purpose of teaching is to facilitate learning and to encourage the learners to learn more effectively.
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