Learning Style Preferences of First–Year Dental Students at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: Influence of Gender and GPA

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the learning style preferences of a group of irst-year dental students and their relation to gender and past academic performance. A total of 113 irst-year dental students (forty-two female, seventy-one male) at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, participated. The Visual, Aural, Read-write, and Kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire was used to determine the students' preferred mode of learning. This sixteen-item questionnaire deines preference of learning based on the sensory modalities: visual, aural, reading/writing, and kinesthetic. More than half (59 percent) of the students were found to have multimodal learning preferences. The most common single learning preferences were aural (20 percent) followed by kinesthetic (15.2 percent). Gender differences were not statistically signiicant. However, a statistically signiicant difference was found in the mean values of GPA in relation to the students' learning style preferences (p=0.019). Students with a single learning style preference had a lower mean GPA than those with multiple (quad-modal) learning style preferences. For effective instruction, dental educators need to broaden their range of presentation styles to help create more positive and effective learning environments for all students.

VARK learning preferences and mobile anatomy software application use in pre‐clinical chiropractic students

“…Students are likely to be more successful if they are multimodal and strategic with their learning methods. A previous study has reported that students with VARK (quadmodal) preferences had higher mean grade point averages (GPA) compared to students with unimodal preferences (Al‐Saud, ). The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) required for admission to the chiropractic program at Murdoch University is 80.…”

“…Previously published studies using the VARK questionnaire are split on the issue of a gender effect on learning preference. A number of studies have reported that gender does not influence VARK preferences (Al‐Saud, ; Prithishkumar and Michael, ; Urval et al, ) whilst others claim there is an effect (Horton et al, ; Kharb et al, ; Peyman et al, ). These equivocal findings suggest that further studies are warranted to establish whether gender influences learning preferences.…”

“…Descriptions of the VARK categories are illustrated in Table . Numerous studies have published data on VARK learning preferences of undergraduate health profession students in the past five years (Dobson, ; Ramirez, ; Horton et al, ; Al‐Saud, ; Alkhasawneh, ; Bareither et al, ; Good et al, ; Kharb et al, ; Nuzhat et al, ; Samarakoon et al, ; Peyman et al, ; Prithishkumar and Michael, ; Urval et al, ; Whillier et al, ). Whillier's (2014) study reported that the majority of chiropractic students were multimodal learners with a preference toward kinesthetic learning approaches.…”

Learning strategies of dental undergraduates of orthodontics and prosthodontics.

“…This is in contrast to the previous conducted studies on dental students where survey was conducted using VARK questionnaire. [12][13][14][15] The results in the present study showed that most of the dental undergraduates were verbal learners. The results in the present study showed that on the sequential/global scale about half of the trainees were balanced, on the active/reflective scale more than half of the trainees were balanced and on the sensing/intuitive scale about half of the trainees were balanced.…”

“…Very few studies have been conceived to measure the learning preferences of dental undergraduates. [12][13][14][15] The results of such studies will help in improvement of teaching methods and BDS curricula to match Following this rationale, the objective of present study was to measure the learning preferences of dental undergraduates at Faisalabad Medical University, Pakistan.…”