Preferred learning styles and strategies among the undergraduate students of forensic medicine.

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the learning styles and strategies among the undergraduate students of forensic medicine. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Al-Tibri Medical College and Hospital, Isra University Karachi Campus. Period: January 2022 to June 2022. Material & Methods: 100 undergraduate students of forensic medicine were selected for this study, after taking a verbal consent and explain the proforma about the learning style using the VARK questionnaire, along with their preferred learning strategies. Then the learning styles were also correlated with gender using the independent t-test. Data was tabulated in mean and standard deviation form for quantitative variables. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 and the p-vale of <0.05 was kept as significant. Results: Out of the 100 participants in our study, 53 were female while 47 were male. When it came to preferred learning strategy the most preferred was CBL (91%), followed by TBL (86%), and practical (82%). Read-write had the highest mean± S.D for male (7.41±1.80) and female (7.21±1.09). Followed by kinesthetic (male:7.85±2.14, female: 6.31±1.20). Significant difference in gender correlation was only seen in Auditory (p=0.04). Conclusion: Read-write was the preferred learning style according to the VARK theory, while CBL was the preferred learning strategy in undergraduate students of forensic medicine due to student centered learning approach.