Publication:

Role of learning style preferences in academic performances among preclinical medical students in a tertiary medical college, Kolkata: a cross-sectional study

Background The number of medical colleges in India has been increasing at a higher rate in the past few years; this increased influx of students would benefit from a system that was more in line with their preferences. Many studies have used the visual, aural/auditory, read/write, kinesthetic (VARK) learning preferences questionnaire, allowing an opportunity to use another questionnaire to determine learning style preferences that is the index of learning styles (ILS) by Felder and Soloman.

Methods A non-probability convenient sampling technique was used to enroll the study participants during period of data collection. This cross-sectional study investigated preclinical medical students to determine learning style preferences and correlate with academic performance across gender. Questionnaires were sent through google forms and 178 preclinical medical students at a tertiary care institute in Kolkata were enrolled.

Results The study population consisted of 1st and 2nd year students at the institute. It was found that a higher percentage preferred visual (89.89%), sensing (60.11%), reflective (53.90%) and sequential (57.30%) learning styles over the alternatives. However, no significant association was found between learning styles and academic performance.

Conclusions If instruction methods heavily favor one type of learning style over another, students with different learning styles may not learn optimally, while students whose learning styles match with the instruction will not be encouraged to develop skills in their less preferred learning styles. The findings from this study will aid in future re-examination of current teaching methods and evaluate whether they are optimally balanced with respect to the students.