Learning Approaches and Styles among Indian Physiotherapy Undergraduate Students using VARK Questionnaire.

Abstract

Background:- Learning is characterized as life-induced lasting changes in behavior. Learning is described as "the process by which knowledge is generated through the transformation of experience," according to experiential learning theory. Students' ability to reach the highest level of learning is influenced by a variety of factors, including their aptitude and temperament, the course's curriculum, the teachers' expertise and methods, the assessment process, the availability of learning opportunities, and the educational environment.

Material and Methods: We circulated a validated VARK (visual, auditory, read/write and kinesthetic) questionnaire along with the four keys (each for one question), amongst physiotherapy first year and final year students at Datta Meghe College of Physiotherapy, Wanadongri, Nagpur. Students were asked to select the any one option for all the questions.

Result: Out of total 150 students, 112 students; 62 (20 males, 42 females) 1st year B.P.Th and 50 (18 males and 32 females) final year B.P.Th students willingly participated in the study and they were asked to fill questionnaire.  Majority of the student from both the first year and final year batch (55% & 71%) choose multimodal learning style. The most common multimodal learning style among first year batch was auditory and reading while auditory – reading and kinesthetic predominates among final year student.

Conclusion: With the shift of paradigm from traditional classroom to virtual learning the learning style reflects the multimodal rather than the uni-modal learning style.