LEARNING METHOD PREFERENCES AMONG ADOLESCENT MEDICAL STUDENTS IN SOUTH INDIA

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Adolescent medical students are freshly exposed to the medical subjects and the experience is entirely new and different compared to their earlier school learning. OBJECTIVES: To determine the preferences of learning methods among adolescent medical students and to determine which is the best method for learning different components. MATERIAL AND METHODS: It is a cross – sectional study conducted among the first year MBBS students in the class rooms of GSL Medical College, Rajahmundry for a period of three months using a standard pre – designed and pre – tested “VARK” questionnaire with learning methods as study variables. A class of 150 students was divided into 3 groups of 50 students each. They were initially taught about the different methods of learning by means of a lecture using power point presentation covering three sessions of 40 minutes each. Then, they were sensitized to the “VARK” questionnaire in the next session of 30 minutes and data was collected using the standard pre – designed and pre – tested “VARK” questionnaire. Time given to complete the questionnaire was 20 minutes. RESULTS: Among 134 adolescent medical students, 89 (66.13%) had completed 17 years age, 24 (17.91%) completed 18 years age, 14 (10.46%) completed 19 years age and 7 (5.2%) completed 20 years age. Mean age of students was 17.54±0.32 years. There were 77 (57.5%) females and 57 (42.5%) males. The students mostly preferred kinaesthetic style of learning. CONCLUSION: The present study emphasizes that different students have different learning styles and hence, using only one method of teaching may not benefit all the students.