The Influence of Six-Year Medical Education on Learning Styles in Medical Students at Baskent University

Leyla Aydın^1*, A. Şebnem Ilhan¹, Erhan Kızıltan¹, Nuray Yazıhan², A. Canan Yazıcı³, Nimet Unay Gundogan¹

¹Department of Physiology, Medical Faculty, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey.
²Department of Pathophysiology, Medical Faculty, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
³Department of Biostatistics, Medical Faculty, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey.

DOI: 10.4236/oalib.1101458                

Abstract

This study is designed to evaluate the difference between the first year and the sixth year of medical faculty in Baskent University (n = 115) by using the Turkish version of the VARK questionnaire. In this survey, VARK questionnaire, which determines a person’s sensory modality by describing visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic preference, is used. In this study, unimodal model is the most commonly preferred learning model in the first-grade students (75.4%), and aural type is dominant style (31.9%) changing to the multimodal (67.4%) and mostly quad-modal learning style (17.4%) in the sixth-year students. There is no gender difference. Learning preferences can differ among students of different faculties. Awareness on the learning preferences of the students facilitates the learning process of the students, and also simplifies the teaching process of the educator in developing appropriate learning methods.

Keywords

Medical Education, Learning Styles, VARK Questionnaire, Unimodal Learning Model, Multimodal Learning Model

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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