The Relationship Between Learning Style Preferences and Gender, Educational Major and Status in First Year Medical Students: A Survey Study From Iran

Abstract

Background:Identifying and employing appropriate learning styles could play an important role in selecting teaching styles in order to improve education.Objectives:This study aimed to determine the relationship between learning styles preferences and gender, educational major and status in first year students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences.Patients and Methods:A cross-sectional study employing the visual-aural-read/write-kinesthetic (VARK) learning style’s questionnaire was done on 184 first year students of medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing and health services management at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2012. The validity of the questionnaire was assessed through experts’ views and reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients (α = 0.86). Data were analyzed using the SPSS ver.18 software and x2 test.Results:Out of 184 participants who responded to and returned the questionnaire, 122 (66.3%) were female; more than two-thirds (68.5%) of the enrolled students were at the professional doctorate level (medicine, pharmacy, dentistry) and 31.5% at the undergraduate level (nursing and health services management). Eighty-nine (48.4%) students preferred a single-modal learning style. In contrast, the remaining 95 students (51.6%) preferred multi-modal learning styles. A significant relationship between gender and single modal learning styles (P = 0.009) and between status and learning styles (P = 0.04) was observed.Conclusions:According to the results, male students preferred to use the kinesthetic learning style more than females, while, female students preferred the aural learning style. Knowledge about the learning styles of students at educational institutes is valuable and helps solve learning problems among students, and allows students to become better learners.

Identification of Medical Students’ Learning Styles in Terms of Gender

“…In a study, Amini and colleagues found some gender-based differences in learning styles which were not statistically significant (Amini et al, 2010). However, in studies conducted by Mohammadi et al (Mohamadi Azni et al, 2008) and Sarabi et al (Sarabi-Asiabar et al, 2015), a significant relationship was observed between gender and learning styles. Honigsfeld examined gender-based differences in learning styles in five different countries and reported that compared to males, females have higher levels of personal motivation, persistence, responsibility and needs for social diversity and warm relationships.…”

An Exploration of the Learning Style Among Undergraduate Nursing Students From An Indian Perspective

“…There was a predominance of diverging learning style across all years of the program. Liew et al [11], reported that there was no gender differences in learning style.However, studies have reported relation between learning style and gender of students [12,13].The difference in the findings related to gender can be associated to the context of cultures, as majority of the study participants were females and females probably tend to learn through feelings [13].…”

A study on the learning styles and learning approaches among medical students

“…Similar results were observed by a study from Iran, with males being predominant kinesthetic learners. [27] However, statistical test does not reveal a significant influence of gender on the learning style preferences. Similar results were observed by other studies.…”