Preferred Learning Mode of Education and Dental Students: A Cross Sectional Study

UWA School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, Western Australia.

*Corresponding author: Rohan Sachdev, UWA School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia, Clifton Street, Nedlands, WA 6009.

Received: October 26, 2019
Published: November 19, 2019

ABSTRACT

Objective: Every student has different learning style to acquire new information. This study was performed to evaluate the learning style likings of undergraduate dental students.

Material and Method: The VARK questionnaire was administered to 40 1st year and 80 Intern dental students to evaluate their liking mode of education. Completed questionnaires were scored and calculated to evaluate the distribution of VARK preferences with student t test.

Results: Among study participants 50% of 1st year students were more with quadmodal whereas 55% of Intern students preferred unimodal in which kinesthetic was main mode. Mean score for V and A mode was significantly more for 1st year students than Intern students.

Conclusion: The dental students of the present study had shown varied learning preferences. The VARK questionnaire is a relatively easy and straightforward method to disclose the education method preferences for any student or a category of students. Dental education providers should adapt their education conveyance procedure to estimate the new teaching preferences for the students. Dental students should be motivated to modify a multimodal method of learning to improve their academic skills.

Keywords: Dental; Learning mode; Students; VARK