Learning Style-Based Teaching Harvests a Superior Comprehension of Respiratory Physiology

• Published in: Advances in physiology education Vol. 39; no. 3; pp. 214 - 217
• Main Authors: Anbarasi, M, Rajkumar, G, Krishnakumar, S, Rajendran, P, Venkatesan, R, Dinesh, T, Mohan, J, Venkidusamy, S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Physiological Society 01-09-2015
• Subjects: Achievement Gains; Analysis of Variance; Anatomy & physiology; Auditory Stimuli; Aural Learning; Cognition & reasoning; Cognitive Style; Comprehension - physiology; Curriculum; Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods; Educational Measurement - methods; Educational Strategies; Female; Foreign Countries; Humans; India; Instructional Effectiveness; Intervention; Kinesthetic Methods; Learning; Learning Strategies; Lecture Method; Lungs; Male; Medical Education; Medical Students; Metabolism; Motivation; Needs Assessment; Online Surveys; Physiology; Physiology - education; Preferences; Pretests Posttests; Problem-Based Learning - methods; Quality Improvement; Questionnaires; Respiratory Physiological Phenomena; Schools, Medical - organization & administration; Student Diversity; Student Motivation; Student Surveys; Teaching Methods; Teaching Models; Tukeys Test; Visual Learning; Young Adult; India; VAK learning style; learning style-based teaching; mechanics of ventilation; didactic lecture
• ISSN: 1043-4046; 1522-1229
• DOI: 10.1152/advan.00157.2014

Students entering medical college generally show vast diversity in their school education. It becomes the responsibility of teachers to motivate students and meet the needs of all diversities. One such measure is teaching students in their own preferred learning style. The present study was aimed to incorporate a learning style-based teaching-learning program for medical students and to reveal its significance and utility. Learning styles of students were assessed online using the visual-auditory-kinesthetic (VAK) learning style self-assessment questionnaire. When respiratory physiology was taught, students were divided into three groups, namely, visual (n = 34), auditory (n = 44), and kinesthetic (n = 28), based on their learning style. A fourth group (the traditional group; n = 40) was formed by choosing students randomly from the above three groups. Visual, auditory, and kinesthetic groups were taught following the appropriate teaching-learning strategies. The traditional group was taught via the routine didactic lecture method. The effectiveness of this intervention was evaluated by a pretest and two posttests, posttest 1 immediately after the intervention and posttest 2 after a month. In posttest 1, one-way ANOVA showed a significant statistical difference (P = 0.005). Post hoc analysis showed significance between the kinesthetic group and traditional group (P = 0.002). One-way ANOVA showed a significant difference in posttest 2 scores (P < 0.0001). Post hoc analysis showed significance between the three learning style-based groups compared with the traditional group [visual vs. traditional groups (p = 0.002), auditory vs. traditional groups (p = 0.03), and Kinesthetic vs. traditional groups (p = 0.001)]. This study emphasizes that teaching methods tailored to students' style of learning definitely improve their understanding, performance, and retrieval of the subject.