Visual, Aural, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic Learning Styles Preferences in Students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Identifying and employing appropriate learning styles can ultimately play an important role in selecting teaching styles in order to improve education. The current study was carried out to determine learning styles preferences of first year students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (2010). A cross-sectional study employed visual، aural، read/write، and kinesthetic (VARK) learning style’s questionnaire which was done on 184 first year students of medicine، pharmacy، dentistry، nursing and health services management at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2010. Validity of the questionnaire was assessed through experts’ views and its reliability was calculated using Cronbach’s alpha coefficients (α = 0. 86). Data were analyzed by VARK software designed in Excel and employing SPSS for Windows 16. 0 (SPSS Inc.، Chicago، IL، USA). Out of 184 participants that responded and returned the questionnaire، 122 (66. 3%) were female، more than two-third (68. 5%) of the student were in professional doctorate status (medicine، pharmacy، dentistry) and 31. 5% were in undergraduate status (nursing and health services management). 89 students (48. 4%) preferred single-modal learning style and the rest of the students preferred multi-modal learning styles. A significant relationship (P < 0. 009) was between the gender and single-modal learning styles and also between course level and learning styles (P < 0. 05). According to the result، male students more than female students preferred to use kinesthetic learning style، while female students preferred aural learning style more. Knowing the learning styles of students in education is a valuable skill that helps trainers to solve learning problems among students، and also helps students to be more effective learners.