Background:The challenge of imparting large amount of knowledge within a limited time period in a way it is perceived, retained, and effectively interpreted by students is considerable. This has resulted in crucial changes in the field of medical education with a shift from didactic, "teacher centered" to use of interactive, "student centered" learning. In context to this, knowledge of learning styles can be useful as it fosters student-centered learning. Knowledge on learners' learning styles is a vastly underutilized approach in a medical classroom. Aims and Objectives: The current study was undertaken to identify the preferred learning styles of medical students. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. Permission from VARK developers, to use VARK Inventory Tool version 7.1 in the study was taken. Learning preferences were determined using VARK scores in the 1 st year medical undergraduates. Results: Of the 89 who participated out of 100, 39.32% were male. Mean age of participants was 17.6 years. More than 80% students studied in state board, 10.11% were from CBSE, while 9.89% students were from ICSE and International Board, respectively. There was no association of gender with learning styles (P > 0.05). The results showed that majority of students, i.e., 61.00% preferred multiple learning styles and the predominant learning style identified was kinesthetic (33%), followed by auditory (16%), then visual (14.6%), and lastly read-write (7.86%). Conclusions: There can be different types of learners in a batch. Educators' awareness of various learning styles of students and their efforts toward designing "teaching-learning" methods according to learning styles of students may help in creating significant learning environment in classrooms.
Introduction: Academic examinations are a very stressful event for an Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) student. While many students learn to deal with it through the use of helpful or unhelpful coping skills, many still end up with considerable psychological morbidity in the form of anxiety and depression along with deterioration in overall health. Jacobson’s Progressive Muscle Relaxation (JPMR) causes deep muscle relaxation. Aim: To find out the prevalence of stress and exam anxiety in students of 1st year MBBS and to study the impact of JPMR. Materials and Methods: It was a quasi-experimental, pretest and post-test interventional study conducted amongst the first year MBBS students studying at the Government Medical College Surat, Gujarat, India, during March to May 2019. Two months before their internal exams, 114 1st year MBBS students were recruited for the study. They were given a pretest proforma which comprised of socio-demographic profile, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Test Anxiety Scale (TAS) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 28. They were asked to attend JPMR sessions over the following month in batches of 30 each and asked to practise JPMR for one month leading up to their exams. Total 43 students attended these sessions while 71 did not. After one month, all 114 students were again given a post-test proforma comprising of the same scales. Paired t-test was applied to compare the pretest and post-test scores to see the impact of JPMR. Results: The mean age of participants was 19 years.The students who completed their schooling in Gujarati medium and those who reported to be staying at hostel experienced significantly more TAS scores at baseline evaluation as compared to their counterparts from English medium schools and those staying at home respectively. There was a statistically significant reduction in mean scores of PSS and TAS before and after practice of JPMR in the 43 students who attended and practiced JPMR (p-value=0.005 and p-value=0.002, respectively; p-value <0.05 was considered to be significant). Conclusion: One month practice of JPMR was found to be effective in reduction of stress and exam anxiety.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.