International Journal of Medical and Health Research

Authors
Dr. Mausumi Basu, Dr. Sita Chatterjee, Dr. Bhaskar Shahbabu, Dr. Ishita Sarkar, Dr. Kaushik Sarkar, Dr. Debasish Sinha, Prof(Dr)Raghunath Misra

Abstract
Introduction: Neil Fleming created the VARK survey to assess learning style preferences which provides the learners with a profile of their learning styles. VARK is an acronym for the Visual (V), Auditory/Aural (A), Read &Write (R) and the Kinaesthetic (K) sensory modalities. Objectives: To understand the preferred sensory modality (or modalities) of students for learning style Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 392 First, second and third professional undergraduate medical students in a teaching hospital of Kolkata from April 20’ 2015 to May19’2015. Analysis: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Version 23.0 & Epi-info 6.04d. Results: About 59.69% students had multimodal learning style preferences and 40.31% had unimodal preferences; the most common VARK mode distribution was unimodal (40.31%); followed by quadrimodal (27.04%), trimodal (17.34%), & bimodal (15.31%); among the unimodal group, aural/auditory mode (44.30%) was the most preferred mode; amongst those who preferred bimodality, 33.33% preferred aural & kinaesthetic (AK);for those students that preferred three modes of information presentation, 41.18% preferred combination of aural, read/write & kinaesthetic (ARK). Conclusions: We hope these data will help us better our course contents and make learning a more fruitful experience.