Learning styles of premedical and basic science undergraduate medical students in a Caribbean medical school

Introduction: Xavier University School of Medicine, Aruba admits students from the United States, Canada to the undergraduate medical (MD) course. Learning styles have not been previously studied in the institution. Objective: The present study was carried out to study the learning styles of students and note the association of these with their demographic characteristics, if any among first to fourth semester premedical students and first to fourth semester undergraduate medical (MD) students during November 2013. Method: Version 7.2 of the VARK questionnaire was used. Age, gender, semester of study and nationality of the respondents were noted. The mean scores among different subgroups of respondents were compared using appropriate statistical tests (p 0.05). Result: Ninety-one of the 108 students (84.26%) completed the questionnaire. The median visual, auditory, read-write and kinaesthetic scores were 3, 5, 4 and 5 respectively. The median auditory score was significantly higher among Premedical 2 and 4 students. Forty-three respondents (47.2%) preferred a unimodal learning style while 48 (52.7%) used multiple learning styles. Conclusion: The most preferred learning style was kinaesthetic followed by auditory and read and write. More small group sessions and active learning can be used to cater to these students.