Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Learning Style for First Year Saudi Medical Students at Qassim University: Gender Differences

Mahfoudh A. M. Abdulghani, Mohammed S. S. Al-Dhubaibi, Meshal M. A. Alhameedy, Mohammed A. Alnuwaysir

Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science · pp. 1–8 · Published 16 Feb 2016

10.9734/BJESBS/2016/23815

Abstract

Aims: Studies on learning preferences of medical students in Saudi where medical education, as well as the environmental education, differ greatly from Western countries are limited. Students have preferences for the modes in which they collect information. The objective of this study was to categorize learning preferences of Qassim University’s male and female medical students. Study Design:  A descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: First-year medical students at Qassim University Medical College, between March 2015 and June 2015. Methodology: The visual, auditory, reading/writing, kinaesthetic (VARK) survey categorises students’ favourites for certain modes of information presentation. The VARK survey was distributed to our first-year medical students, and 75 of 150 students (50%) returned the surveys completed. Results: The majority of male (92.47%) and half of the female (50.09%) students prefer a single mode of information presentation. Male and female showed similarly preferences in all modes of information presentation, including visual learning from diagrams, graphs, and flow charts, auditory learning from verbal expression, and reading/writing learning from texts, but kinaesthetic learning from hands-on, demonstration and sight. In kinaesthetic, female (40.14%) showed more preference than male (28.04%). In contrast, most female students (49.91%) and a few male students (7.53%) preferred multiple modes whereas male (53%) and female (47%) showed similarly preferences in the bi-modal. Male students (23%) showed greater preference of tri-modal than female (13%), in contrast to the female students (40%) showing more preference of the quad-modal than male (24%). Conclusion: Knowing student’s preferred modes can a) assist in providing appropriate instructions that are personalised to the student’s individual requirements, b) conquer the tendency of treating all students in an analogous mode, and c) encourage instructors to move from their favoured mode(s) to using others.

Learning styles medical school VARK questionnaire medical education Qassim University.

References (27)

  1. 1 Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics [DOI]
  2. 2 Not Another Inventory, Rather a Catalyst for Reflection [DOI]
  3. 3 Learning Styles in the ESL/EFL Classroom
  4. 4 Using Learning Style Instruments to Enhance Student Learning [DOI]
  5. 5 First-year medical students prefer multiple learning styles [DOI]
  6. 6 Survey of research on learning styles
  7. 7 Gender differences in learning style preferences among undergraduate physiology students [DOI]
  8. 8 Visual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic Learning Styles and Their Impacts on English Language Teaching [DOI]
  9. 9 Haptics in Education: Exploring an Untapped Sensory Modality [DOI]
  10. 10 Not Another Inventory, Rather a Catalyst for Reflection [DOI]
  11. 11 Learning styles of first-year medical students attending Erciyes University in Kayseri, Turkey [DOI]
  12. 12 Active-learning strategies: The use of a game to reinforce learning in nursing education. A case study [DOI]
  13. 13 Cognitive styles in the service of language learning [DOI]
  14. 14 Learning style preferences and course performance in an undergraduate physiology class [DOI]
  15. 15 Virtual CEOs: A blended approach to digital gaming for enhancing higher order thinking and academic achievement among vocational high school students [DOI]
  16. 16 Learning style preferences of medical students: a single-institute experience from Saudi Arabia [DOI]
  17. 17 Learning Style Preferences of First–Year Dental Students at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Influence of Gender and GPA [DOI]
  18. 18 Using a Kinesthetic Learning Strategy to Engage Nursing Student Thinking, Enhance Retention, and Improve Critical Thinking [DOI]
  19. 19 Learning style and teaching method preferences of Saudi students of physical therapy [DOI]
  20. 20 Investigating the Relationships between Learning Styles , Strategies and the Academic Performance of Saudi English Majors [DOI]
  21. 21 Assessment of Learning Style in a Sample of Saudi Medical Students [DOI]
  22. 22 Learning styles of medical students [DOI]
  23. 23 Learning style preferences of preclinical medical students in a Malaysian university [DOI]
  24. 24 Gender And Learning Styles In Saudi Arabia Schools
  25. 25 Learning by doing: construction and manipulation of a skeletal muscle model during lecture [DOI]
  26. 26 Learning Style Preferences of Preclinical Medical Students in Oman [DOI]
  27. 27 Learning Style Preferences of Korean-, Mexican-, Armenian-American, and Anglo Students in Secondary Schools. Research Brief.

Cited by 1

Preferred learning styles of first and third year nursing students in a diploma programme at a college in KwaZulu-Natal: a comparative study

Linda Subramoney · 2019

Related research

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

86

Page views

0

PDF downloads

14

Outbound clicks

1

Citations

Views over time

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.