Does gender influence learning style preferences of first-year medical students?

TLDR

First‑year medical students exhibit distinct learning style preferences, and recognizing these differences is crucial for effective classroom design. The study surveyed 250 first‑year students with the VARK questionnaire, obtaining completed responses from 97 participants (38.8 %). Male and female students both favored multimodal learning, with no significant gender difference, though females displayed slightly greater diversity in modality combinations, suggesting instructors should diversify instructional approaches.

Abstract

Students have specific learning style preferences, and these preferences may be different between male and female students. Understanding a student's learning style preference is an important consideration when designing classroom instruction. Therefore, we administered the visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinesthetic (VARK) learning preferences questionnaire to our first-year medical students; 38.8% (97 of 250 students) of the students returned the completed questionnaire. Both male (56.1%) and female (56.7%) students preferred multiple modes of information presentation, and the numbers and types of modality combinations were not significantly different between genders. Although not significantly different, the female student population tended to be more diverse than the male population, encompassing a broader range of sensory modality combinations within their preference profiles. Instructors need to be cognizant of these differences and broaden their range of presentation styles accordingly.