Influence of learning-style preferences in academic performance in the subject of human anatomy: an institution-based study among preclinical medical students

Figures & data

Table 1 Frequency distribution of variables defining the study population

Variables	Categories	Frequency	Percentage
Faculty of students (n=142)	MBBS	98	69.0
	BDS	44	31.0
Gender (n=142)	Male	92	64.8
	Female	50	35.2
Nationality (n=142)	Nepalese	104	73.2
	Indian	38	26.8
Age-group (n=142)	<20 year	73	51.4
	≥20 year	69	48.6
Higher secondary school score (n=142)	High achiever	61	43.0
	Low achiever	16	11.3
Study hours per week (n=142)	≤40	57	40.1
	>50	28	19.7
Score in theory exam of anatomy (n=139)	High achiever	39	28.1
	Low achiever	57	41.0
Score in practical exam of anatomy (n=139)	High achiever	45	32.4
	Low achiever	48	34.5

Abbreviations: MBBS, Bachelor of Medicine–Bachelor of Surgery; BDS, Bachelor of Dental Surgery.

Table 2 Study-population variables

	Mean (SD)	Spread	Range
Age (n=142)	19.57 (1.15)	6.00	17.00–23.00
Grade 12 score, % (n=142)	78.08 (6.88)	34.60	60.00–94.00
Study hours per week (n=142)	45.45 (11.99)	66.00	18.00–84.00
First-unit exam score (%), theory (n=139)	50.48 (14.91)	73.33	3.33–76.67
First-unit exam score (%), practical (n=139)	52.34 (17.12)	76.54	10.00–86.54

Table 3 Preferred mode of learning and their subcategories among preclinical medical students

	Category	Frequency	Percentage	Total
Unimodal	Visual (V)	2	1.4	66 (46.48%)
	Aural (A)	21	14.8
	Read/write (R)	1	0.7
	Kinesthetic (K)	42	29.6
Bimodal	VA	2	1.4	37 (26.06%)
	VR	1	0.7
	VK	3	2.1
	AR	1	0.7
	AK	26	18.3
	RK	4	2.8
Trimodal	VAR	1	0.7	16 (11.27%)
	VAK	5	3.5
	ARK	8	5.6
	VRK	2	1.4
Quadrimodal	VARK	23	16.2	23 (16.20%)

Figure 1 Distribution of students’ preferred modes of learning by age and academic performance.

Figure 2 Distribution of students' preferred modes of learning by sex, faculty, and nationality.

Abbreviations: MBBS, Bachelor of Medicine–Bachelor of Surgery; BDS, Bachelor of Dental Surgery.

Table 4 Association between VARK learning preferences and characteristics of participants

			Unimodal learning style	Multimodal learning style	χ^2 (df)	P-value
Faculty	MBBS (n=98)	Frequency (%)	48 (49.0)	50 (51.0)	0.795 (1)	0.373
	BDS (n=44)	Frequency (%)	18 (40.9)	26 (59.1)
Sex	Male (n=92)	Frequency (%)	45 (48.9)	47 (51.1)	0.622 (1)	0.430
	Female (n=50)	Frequency (%)	21 (42.0)	29 (58.0)
Nationality	Nepalese students (n=104)	Frequency (%)	49 (47.1)	55 (52.9)	0.063 (1)	0.801
	Indian students (n=38)	Frequency (%)	17 (44.7)	21 (55.3)

Abbreviations: VARK, visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic; MBBS, Bachelor of Medicine–Bachelor of Surgery; BDS, Bachelor of Dental Surgery.

Table 5 Association between VARK learning preferences with age and academic performance of the participants

			Unimodal learning style	Multimodal learning style	χ^2(df=1)	P-value
Age	<20 year (n=73)	Frequency (%)	54 (46.2)	63 (53.8)	0.028	0.867
	≥20 year (n=69)	Frequency (%)	12 (48.0)	13 (52.0)
HSS grade	High achiever	Frequency (%)	31 (50.8)	30 (49.2)	3.79	0.15
	Average achiever	Frequency (%)	25 (38.5)	40 (61.5)
	Low achiever	Frequency (%)	27 (62.5)	30 (37.5)
Anatomy grade (theory)	High achiever	Frequency (%)	21 (53.8)	18 (46.2)	1.71	0.43
	Average achiever	Frequency (%)	17 (39.5)	26 (60.5)
	Low achiever	Frequency (%)	27 (47.4)	30 (52.6)
Anatomy grade (practical)	High achiever	Frequency (%)	22 (48.9)	23 (51.1)	0.78	0.68
	Average achiever	Frequency (%)	23 (50)	23 (50)
	Low achiever	Frequency (%)	20 (41.7)	28 (58.3)
Study hours (per week)	≤40	Frequency (%)	24 (42.1)	33 (57.9)	1.023	0.600
	40–50	Frequency (%)	27 (47.4)	30 (52.6)
	>50	Frequency (%)	15 (53.6)	13 (46.4)

Abbreviations: VARK, visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic; HSS, higher secondary school.

Figure 3 Box-and-whisker plots showing the relationship between categorical variable (learning styles) and scale variables (academic performance).

Note: Outliers shown as circles and extreme outliers as asterisks.

Table 6 Tests for normality for all quantitative variables

	Kolmogorov–Smirnov		Shapiro–Wilk
	Statistic	P	Statistic	P
Age	0.204	<0.001	0.909	<0.001
10+2 (or equivalent) grade	0.098	0.002	0.967	0.002
Study hours in a week	0.156	<0.001	0.935	<0.001
First-unit exam score, % (theory)	0.083	0.020	0.963	0.001
First-unit exam score, % (practical)	0.100	0.002	0.984	0.095
Total visual (V), aural (A), read/write (R), kinesthetic (K) score	0.152	<0.001	0.933	<0.001
Total A score	0.114	<0.001	0.957	<0.001
Total R score	0.146	<0.001	0.956	<0.001
Total K score	0.104	0.001	0.977	0.020
Total VARK score	0.109	<0.001	0.925	<0.001

Note: P>0.05 signifies normal distribution of the data points of the variable.

Table 7 Comparison of quantitative variables between unimodal and multimodal learners (independent-sample t-test and Mann–Whitney U test)

	Unimodal vs multimodal learning	Mean rank	Mann–Whitney U	P-value
Age	Unimodal learning style	70.89	2,467.50	0.863
	Multimodal learning style	72.03
10+2 (or equivalent) grade	Unimodal learning style	72.08	2,469.50	0.875
	Multimodal learning style	70.99
Study hours in a week	Unimodal learning style	75.20	2,264.00	0.317
	Multimodal learning style	68.29
First-unit exam score, % (theory)	Unimodal learning style	71.93	2,279.50	0.596
	Multimodal learning style	68.30
First-unit exam score, % (practical)		Mean (SD)	Mean difference	P-value
	Unimodal learning style	53.13 (17.60)	1.492	0.610
	Multimodal learning style	51.64 (16.77)

Table 8 Individual and total VARK scores based on sex

	Sex	Mean ± SD	SEM	Mean rank	U	P-value
Total V score	Male	4.59±2.60	0.27	74.47	2,027.0	0.239
	Female	4.06±2.04	0.29	66.04
Total A score	Male	6.22±3.02	0.32	67.96	1,974.5	0.162
	Female	6.72±2.53	0.36	78.01
Total R score	Male	3.91±1.98	0.21	68.88	2,059.0	0.298
	Female	4.42±2.43	0.34	76.32
Total K score	Male	7.96±2.35	0.24	77.44	1,753.5	0.019
	Female	6.96±2.43	0.34	60.57
Total VARK score	Male	22.67±6.16	0.64	71.59	2,291.5	0.97
	Female	22.16±5.04	0.71	71.33

Abbreviation: VARK, visual,aural, read/write, kinesthetic.

Table 9 Bivariate correlation coefficient between different VARK scores and academic performance of the students. Test used- Spearman correlation test

Variables		V score	A score	R score	K score	VARK score	HSS marks	Study hours	Marks (theory)	Marks (practical)
V score	rs		0.129	0.168*	0.233**	0.641**	−0.018	0.085	0.048	0.122
A score	rs	0.129		0.165	0.041	0.590**	0.063	0.004	−0.102	−0.032
R score	rs	0.168*	0.165		−0.064	0.496**	−0.203*	0.057	−0.062	−0.182*
K score	rs	0.233**	0.041	−0.064		0.509**	−0.137	0.246**	−0.032	0.015
VARK score	rs	0.641**	0.590**	0.496**	0.509**		−0.083	0.141	−0.020	0.015
HSS marks	rs	−0.018	0.063	−0.203*	−0.137	−0.083		0.021	0.167*	0.274**
Study hours	rs	0.085	0.004	0.057	0.246**	0.141	0.021		−0.081	−0.094
Marks (theory)	rs	0.048	−0.102	−0.062	−0.032	−0.020	0.167*	−0.081		0.706**
Marks (practical)	rs	0.122	−0.032	−0.182*	0.015	0.015	0.274**	−0.094	0.706**

Notes: *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level; **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-talied).

Abbreviations: VARK, visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic; HSS, higher secondary school.

Table 10 Comparison of present study with previous studies. Most common learning modes are presented within brackets

Reference	Region	Sample size	Learning style
			Unimodal	Multimodal
^Citation25	India	152	48% (K=35%)	52% (AK)
^Citation30	India	121	53.8% (V=24.1%)	46.2% (VARK=42.3%)
^Citation31	India	150	58%	42%
^Citation33	Saudi Arabia	110	59% (K=15%)	41%
^Citation29	West Indies	500	31.3% (A=14.24)	68.7% (VARK=24.14%)
^Citation26	India	273	36.6% (V=12.22%)	63.4% (VARK=33.3%)
^Citation32	Ireland	327	57.8%	42.2% (bimodal=23.5%)
^Citation28	Iran	80	47.5% (A=29.78%)	52.5%
^Citation27	India	381	33% (K=14.52%)	67% (VARK=31.49%)
Present study	Nepal	142	46.48% (K=29.6%)	53.52% (AK=18.3%)

Abbreviation: VARK, visual, aural, read/write, kinesthetic.

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