Preferred Learning Styles of Medical and Physiotherapy Students

Abstract

<p><strong>Background:</strong><strong> </strong>Learning styles are the ways students learn, intake and process new information. The contribution of learning styles for educational quality is evident and have important implications to develop effective curricula. Teachers can effectively plan instructional activities if they know the learning styles of students. This study was conducted to find out the preferred learning styles of medical and physiotherapy students.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Methods:</strong><strong> </strong>This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted at Azra Naheed Medical College Lahore from January to March 2014. Honey and Muffard Learning Style Questionnaire (LSQ) was used to assess the preferred learning styles. The medical students of 3rd year and 6th semester physiotherapy class were invited for the study. The collected data was organized and analyzed by the use of statistical tools.</p><p><strong>Results:</strong><strong> </strong>120 students participated in this study, out of which 60 (50 %) were students of MBBS class whereas 60 (50 %) were of physiotherapy class. 48 (40%) were male students and 72 (60%) were female students. Both the groups have reflector as dominating learning style with a minor difference of (40%) and (42.5%) for medical and physiotherapy respectively.</p><p><strong>Conclusion:</strong><strong> </strong>Students have different learning styles and require versatile instructional and assessment strategies. Preferred learning style of medical and physiotherapy students found in this study is reflector, however all the learning styles are present in both groups.<strong></strong></p>

Perceptions of Self-Directed Learning among Nursing Students at Private Nursing Institutes in Karachi, Pakistan

“…Similarly, another study has reported the highest mean score (4.08±0.5) of all the three components of the SDLRS followed by selfcontrol (3.9±0.9) [25]. Another study showed that the majority of students had a high level of readiness toward SDL; the mean score of selfcontrol was higher than self-management and desire for learning [26].…”

Learning Preferences among Medical and Physical Therapy Students: A Systematic Review

“…(Rahila Nizami et al, 2017) 34 statistical significance, methods and limitations were not properly reported leading to low quality of reporting statistical significance, methods and limitations were not properly reported leading to low quality of reporting…”

Are Active Teaching Methods Suitable for All Generation Y students?—Creativity as a Needed Ingredient and the Role of Learning Style

“…Based on these two dimensions, four learning styles are identified: (1) an accommodator-learning through a concrete experience and active experimentation, (2) a diverger-learning through a concrete experience and reflective observation, (3) an assimilator-learning through an abstract conceptualization and reflective observation, and (4) a converger-learning through an abstract conceptualization and active experimentation [66]. Honey and Mumford's learning style theory presents an adapted version of Kolb's model, and classifies individual learning styles depending on their preference for learning from experience (an activist), reflective observation, description of processes and understanding of meaning (a reflector), observing and understanding facts and information and their relations as well as understanding of logic (a theorist), or doing and trying practical things (a pragmatist) [14,74].…”

“…In order to determine student's preferred manner of obtaining new information, which enables the typification of respondent's learning styles, Honey and Mumford's [83] 80-point extensive Learning Style Questionnaire (LSQ) was used. LSQ, which classifies learners into four major groups-activists, reflectors, theorists, and pragmatists, was used as it is considered to be more suitable inventory for a business community [84], and as it is extensively employed in management training [14] and scientific research in the field [67,74]. Cronbach's alphas exhibited the reliability of both the whole instrument (α = 0.658) and individual learning style scales (α activist = 0.725; α reflector = 0.655; α theorist = 0.659; α pragmatist = 0.562).…”

“…Learning style theories propose that if the teaching methodology is in accordance with the learning style of a student, then his/her learning will be enriched [76,84,89]. In other words, while designing teaching and learning activities, teachers have to take into account the preferred learning style [74,90], as this improves both student attitudes toward learning and their academic achievements [67,91]. However, not all students have the same learning style, as confirmed by our findings exhibiting that the majority of graduate management students in class 2017-2018 at FEB-Zagreb are reflectors, although other dominant learning styles as well as more-modal learners are also present.…”