Assessment of learning style preferences among MBBS students using the VARK questionnaire

• Author Details:   
• Bikash Chandra Satapathy ^*
• Gyanraj Singh

---

Introduction: Students learn differently and this is identified as learning styles. To identify these learning styles or preferences the model introduced by Fleming uses a questionnaire with 16 questions each having 4 options.

Aim & Objective: This study aimed to assess the learning style preferences of MBBS students using a visual, aural, read/write and kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire.

Materials and Methods: The VARK questionnaire version 7.8 was distributed to 50 first year undergraduate medical students after they were informed about the study. No personally identifiable points except the gender data, were collected. The questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Only the fully completed questionnaires were analyzed in Microsoft excel.

Results: Out of the 50 MBBS students enrolled, 46 students filled and returned the questionnaires as participation was voluntary. Among them, 5 questionnaires were incomplete hence were discarded. The remaining 41 questionnaires were analyzed. The unimodal learning preference was more prevalent at 70%, followed by bimodal learning at 26.1%, trimodal learning at 3.6% and tetramodal the least at 0%. Among the unimodal learning kinesthetic modality or ‘learning by doing’ was found to be the most preferred at 34%. Read/write mode had the least score. There was no significant difference in preference between the sexes.

Conclusion: Of the 50 enrolled students, 41 valid responses were analyzed. The majority demonstrated a preference for unimodal learning styles, with kinesthetic learning being the most popular modality. Bimodal learning was the next most prevalent, with a variety of combinations being observed. These findings have implications for tailoring medical education to meet students’ needs.

Keywords: VARK, Questionnaire, Medical education, Learning style