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Published:
Nov 15, 2016Keywords:
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Type of High Secondary School (Governmental Vs Private) and Type of High Secondary School Certificate (Sudanese Vs Arabian): Do They Affect Learning Style?
Abstract
Background: People differ in the way they perceive, process, store, and recall what they are attempting to learn. This study aimed to assess the learning styles among preclinical 1st year medical students and the influence of the type of high secondary school (governmental vs. private) and type of high secondary school certificate (Sudanese vs. Arabian) on learning style.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional institutional-based study was conducted at Al Neelain University, Khartoum State, Sudan. First year students of Medicine, Dentistry and Physiotherapy Faculties were enrolled. The VARK (Visual, Auditory, Read and write, and Kinesthetic) learning style hard copy questionnaire, © Copyright Version 7.8 (2014) held by VARK Learn Limited, Christchurch, New Zealand was administered following permission. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.
Results: Out of 320 students, 198 correctly completed VARK questionnaires, with mean age of 17.88 years (SD 1.52) and 74.2% were female students. About 59.6% were from governmental schools and 79.4% of the studied students had Sudanese High Secondary Certificates. About 64.1% demonstrated singular mode preference. Inferential statistics showed statistically significant difference between the learning styles and the type of secondary school whether governmental or private (P-value 0.005) while no statistically significant difference in relation to the type of high school certificate of the studied group (P-value 0.225).
Conclusion: The type of secondary school whether governmental or private may affect learning style of medical students while student's gender, type of college, or type of high school certificate (whether Sudanese or Arabian) do not. More andlarger studies are encouraged.
Key word: Learning modalities, VARK questionnaire, Unimodal preference, Medical
education, Sudan.
