Gender differences in learning style preferences among undergraduate physiology students

Area of Science:

• Physiology Education
• Educational Psychology
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Students possess diverse learning style preferences, categorized as visual, auditory, read-write, and kinesthetic (VARK).
• The VARK questionnaire is a tool to assess these individual learning style preferences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate gender differences in learning style preferences among undergraduate physiology majors.
• To determine if male and female students exhibit statistically significant variations in their preferred modes of information presentation.

Main Methods:

• Administered the VARK questionnaire to undergraduate physiology majors in a capstone laboratory course.
• Collected gender information voluntarily from a subset of students and analyzed learning style preferences based on gender.

Main Results:

• A higher percentage of females (54.2%) preferred single-mode learning compared to males (12.5%).
• Male students predominantly favored multimodal learning (87.5%), particularly four modes (VARK), while females leaned towards single-mode (K).
• Significant gender-based differences were observed in learning style preferences within the physiology student cohort.

Conclusions:

• Male and female undergraduate physiology students demonstrate significantly different learning style preferences.
• Instructors should acknowledge and adapt teaching strategies to accommodate the diverse learning styles of male and female students for improved educational outcomes.