Trends in Learning Styles of Undergraduate Dental Students of A Dental College, Lahore | [Journal of Pakistan Dental Association • 2025]

Author(s):

1. Tayyaba Rafiq: Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Department, Lahore Medical and Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan

2. Sadia Iqbal: Department of Oral Pathology. Lahore Medical and Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan

3. Attique Ur Rehman: Department of Operative Dentistry, Islam Dental College, Sialkot, Pakistan

4. Aqib Sohail: Department, Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, College of Dentistry, Lahore Medical and Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan

5. Ammara Anwar: Department of Oral Medicine, Rahbar Dental College, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract:

OBJECTIVE: The study was conducted to determine the VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading/Writing, Kinesthetic) based learning style preferences of the undergraduate dental students of Lahore Medical and Dental College, Lahore. STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 237 students from the first, second, third and final year of the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) program. An English version of the VARK questionnaire v.7.8 was used as an evaluation tool. The results were analyzed using the IBM SPSS statistics v.23. Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the data, while inferential statistics, including Chi-square tests, were used to explore differences between groups based on gender and pre-medical education streams. RESULTS: The majority of the students (69%) were identified as multimodal learners, while 31% were uni-modal learners. Among the multimodal learners, 35% preferred a quad-modal learning style. No statistically significant differences were found in learning preferences when comparing gender groups or pre-medical education streams (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: This study highlights the predominance of multimodal learning styles among dental students, emphasizing the importance of tailored teaching strategies to address diverse learning preferences. Educators should consider integrating varied instructional methods to accommodate the preferences of their students. Future research should explore the impact of these learning preferences on academic performance and clinical skill acquisition to further refine teaching approaches in dental education.

Page(s): 6-10

DOI: 10.25301/JPDA.341.6

Published: Journal: Journal of Pakistan Dental Association, Volume: 34, Issue: 01, Year: 2025

Keywords:

undergraduate , Dental students , learning style , VARK , LMDC

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