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Teachers of Physiology facilitate the learning of students belonging to different courses and each student has different sensory modality preferences while assimilating information. Students with a visual learning preference prefer learning with graphs and diagrams; students with an auditory preference learn by listening to information; those with a read/write preference prefer textual matter and those with a kinesthetic preference prefer to learn by physical experiences like touching and manipulating material. This study was done to determine the sensory modality learning preferences of first year dental students studying Physiology in South India. The VARK (Visual, Aural, Read/Write, Kinesthetic) questionnaire was administered to 89 first year dental students in a Medical College in South India. Results revealed that the majority of first year dental students (55%) preferred to use a single sensory modality while learning ie., they had unimodal learning preferences. Out of the students who had a unimodal preference, it was found that 47% had a preference for the aural modality and 41% had a preference for the kinesthetic modality. This knowledge of the sensory modality learning preferences of students studying Physiology can act as a catalyst to initiate reflection and subsequent appropriate action by teachers of Physiology.

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Introduction: Even though role-play promotes active learning, some students have considered it as the least preferred teaching method. This study was undertaken to determine the perceptions of first year medical students in an Indian medical college about the use of role-play in Physiology as a teaching-learning method and to determine if the perceptions varied between the role-players and the observers of the role-play as this has not been sufficiently explored by previous researchers.

Methods: 46 first year medical students took part in the role-play and 97 students were observers. All 143 students completed a 12 item questionnaire about their perceptions regarding the use of role play in Physiology using a 5 point Likert response scale and results were analysed using SPSS 17.

Results: The majority of students perceived role-play to be interesting (95.80%), lively (86.01%), helpful in breaking monotony (96.50%) and in visualizing clinical features (86.71%). 83.22% felt that the role-play helped them learn attitudes of a doctor while treating patients and 87.41% felt that role-play was useful in learning communication skills. The role-play was considered to be realistic, facilitating the transition from classroom to clinical wards and while being appropriate for their level was also felt to be applicable to other undergraduate students. Comparison of the observers and role players’ scores showed no significant difference in perceptions (p value 0.409) ie., both groups perceived role play positively.

Conclusion: From the perspective of first year Indian medical students, role-plays in Physiology are perceived positively.

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