Learning Styles among Dental Undergraduates and Postgraduates—VARK Scale Study

Abstract

Learning of clinical science is challenging task for dental student. It requires practice, integration and application of knowledge, skill and attitude to learn in dental school and hospital. Students’ awareness about their own learning style and their ability to choose the most appropriate strategies for themselves are two important concepts. Aim: To assess the learning styles among dental undergraduates and postgraduates. Methodology: Self-response VARK questionnaire was administered to the students of private dental college in person. The VARK instrument measures how you prefer to learn. Each of the letters corresponds to a particular preference as follows: Visual (V), Aural/ Auditory (A), Read/Write (R) and Kinesthetic (K). Results: There was variation seen in the learning style amongst the students of different level of course. About 42% of final year students showed preference to trimodal learning, 32% interns for bimodal and 31.3% of graduates had increased unimodal style of learning in their respective groups. In overall sample of students, 31.3% had trimodal and 29.3% had bimodal preference of learning style. The Chi-Square test showed that there was a statistical significant association between learning choices and the category of participant as final year, intern and graduates. As oral healthcare educator it becomes important to be aware of learning style of our students for helping students in effective learning. This study also helps educators to design effective educational programme for dental students based on their learning preferences.

Keywords: Learning styles, VARK scale study, trimodal learning, oral healthcare educator

Cite this Article

Deshpande AN, Pradhan HC, Sikda M et al. Learning Styles among Dental Undergraduates and Postgraduates—VARK Scale Study. Research & Reviews: A Journal of Dentistry. 2018; 9(2): 1–8p.