Predominant Learning styles adopted by AIMST University students in Malaysia.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: An assortment of learning styles is adopted by medical students. Some like to learn by seeing, some by hearing and some by demonstration. Understanding their preferred learning styles as visual, auditory, read-write or kinesthetic learners will help improve the teaching methods adopted. Objective and Goal role of the educator necessitates making the most of each teaching opportunity by understanding the characteristics of the learning audience and incorporating demonstrated principles of adult educational design, with a focus on collaborative learning and variety in presentation techniques. The goal is to provide student oriented education, producing efficient doctors. Design and participants: A cross-sectional study among 214 medical students of the AIMST University, conducted in 2008. Main outcome measures were 1. Learning style {visual (V), auditory (A), readwrite( R), kinesthetic (K)} 2. Preferred study practice (alone, in pairs or in groups). Results and Discussion: Preference for different learning styles were, visual (V) 9%, auditory (A) 28%, reading/writing (R) 38% and kinesthetic (K) 35%. 51.4 % of the total 214 students preferred a single mode of information presentation (either V, A, R, or K). Of the 104 students (48.6 % of the total 214 ) who preferred multiple modes of information presentation, some preferred two modes (bimodal, 25%), some preferred three modes (tri-modal, 12%), and some preferred four modes (quadri-modal, 67%). Practical implications With growing interest in learning styles, an awareness of students’ preferences will be of particular value in designing course delivery strategies which combine an appropriate mix of lectures, Problem based learning (PBL) sessions and practical hours. Originality/value Multiplicity exists in the learning styles of students and the accomplishment of teaching goals is based on the ability to understand the complexity and to use the knowledge of these differences to balance these disparities among the students in a class.