Which mode of learning do dental students prefer? A cross-sectional study in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the learning preferences of dental students and to compare it between preclinical and clinical dental students in Chennai. Introduction: Educators of health-care profession are responsible for the quality of future health-care providers, but they may face a greater challenge in transmission of their knowledge to the students. This study was conducted to match the teaching and learning methods to make the learning easier. Materials and Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in January 2016 among 310 dental students in Chennai to determine their preferences of learning styles using Visual, Aural, Read-write, and Kinesthetic questionnaire. Results: Majority of the students (86%) preferred multimodal learning style. Auditory and kinesthetic methods were most preferred unimodal learning style among preclinical and clinical students, respectively. Auditory and kinesthetic methods were dominant even in bimodal and trimodal preference of learning style. Conclusion: As the majority of the dental students preferred multimodal learning style, a variety of teaching methods should be included in the curriculum according to the students′ preferences.

Keywords

• dental students
• learning style
• visual
• aural
• read-write
• and kinesthetic