Learning styles of first-year medical students attending Erciyes University in Kayseri, Turkey

TLDR

Educational researchers suggest that individuals possess distinct learning styles. This descriptive study aimed to identify first‑year medical students’ learning styles via the Turkish VARK questionnaire. At Erciyes University’s Department of Medical Education, first‑year medical students completed the Turkish VARK questionnaire, which classified them into visual, read‑write, auditory, kinesthetic, or multimodal groups. Among 155 students, 36.1% preferred a single modality and 63.9% multimodal; 23.3% were kinesthetic, 7.7% auditory, 3.2% visual, 1.9% read‑write, with 30.3% bimodal, 20.7% trimodal, and 12.9% quadmodal; learning styles did not differ by sex or GPA, suggesting instructors should tailor teaching to diverse preferences.

Abstract

Educational researchers postulate that every individual has a different learning style. The aim of this descriptive study was to determine the learning styles of first-year medical students using the Turkish version of the visual, auditory, read-write, kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire. This study was performed at the Department of Medical Education of Erciyes University in February 2006. The Turkish version of the VARK questionnaire was administered to first-year medical students to determine their preferred mode of learning. According to the VARK questionnaire, students were divided into five groups (visual learners, read-write learners, auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, and multimodal learners). The unimodality preference was 36.1% and multimodality was 63.9%. Among the students who participated in the study (155 students), 23.3% were kinesthetic, 7.7% were auditory, 3.2% were visual, and 1.9% were read-write learners. Some students preferred multiple modes: bimodal (30.3%), trimodal (20.7%), and quadmodal (12.9%). The learning styles did not differ between male and female students, and no statistically significant difference was determined between the first-semester grade average points and learning styles. Knowing that our students have different preferred learning modes will help the medical instructors in our faculty develop appropriate learning approaches and explore opportunities so that they will be able to make the educational experience more productive.