Assessment of Learning Styles in Final Year Medical Students: Comparison of Private and Government Medical College

Abstract

Objective: to make a comparison of preferred learning style of final year MBBS medical students of a private medical college with that of Government sector institution.

Method: Participants of this observational study were final year students of Services Institute of Medical Sciences Lahore (SIMS) and Lahore Medical and Dental College (LMDC) Pakistan. Fifty Final year students from each college filled the Vark Questionnaire. They were assessed according to their favorite method of learning and were classified as kinesthetic, visual, auditory, or read/write. Comparison of VARK scores between colleges was done by Independent Sample T-Test.

Results: There was no significant difference in preference of learning styles among students of both medical colleges. Majority students of both colleges preferred Unimodal style (LMDC-78% vs SIMS-74%). Multimodal style was seen in the rest of students. Read/writing was common among the students of both colleges (20%). Kinesthetic style was preferred by 34% of students of private vs 20% from Government institution.

Conclusion: Teaching should involve all sensory modality so that all types of students can actively participate in learning session.