First-year medical students prefer multiple learning styles

TLDR

Students exhibit preferences for how they receive information, and the VARK questionnaire classifies these preferences into visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic modes. The study aims to use knowledge of students’ preferred learning modes to tailor instruction, avoid treating all students the same, and encourage teachers to diversify their teaching methods. The authors administered the VARK questionnaire to 250 first‑year medical students, obtaining completed responses from 166 (66 %). Only 36.1 % of students preferred a single learning mode, while 63.8 % favored multiple modes—24.5 % preferring two, 32.1 % preferring three, and 43.4 % preferring all four.

Abstract

Students have preferences for the ways in which they receive information. The visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire identifies student's preferences for particular modes of information presentation. We administered the VARK questionnaire to our first-year medical students, and 166 of 250 students (66%) returned the completed questionnaire. Only 36.1% of the students preferred a single mode of information presentation. Among these students, 5.4% preferred visual (learning from graphs, charts, and flow diagrams), 4.8% preferred auditory (learning from speech), 7.8% preferred printed words (learning from reading and writing), and 18.1% preferred using all their senses (kinesthetics: learning from touch, hearing, smell, taste, and sight). In contrast, most students (63.8%) preferred multiple modes [2 modes (24.5%), 3 modes (32.1%), or 4 modes (43.4%)] of information presentation. Knowing the students preferred modes can 1) help provide instruction tailored to the student's individual preference, 2) overcome the predisposition to treat all students in a similar way, and 3) motivate teachers to move from their preferred mode(s) to using others.