Enhancing Learning in Medical Biochemistry by Teaching Based on VARK Learning Style for Medical Students

Learners, including medical students, naturally have different learning style preferences. Teachers need to use a variety of teaching materials to help learners understand the content. However, previous studies have not reported the effects of learning in medical biochemistry by teaching based on the VARK learning style. This study aims to investigate the learning style preferences, the effects of learning in medical biochemistry by teaching based on the VARK learning style, and the relationship between type and number of VARK learning styles and medical biochemistry achievement in medical students.

We investigated a total of 92 first-year medical students at Walailak University. The VARK questionnaire was used to identify the learning style preference of medical students. All students took a pretest before beginning each online lecture. After completing each lecture, all students received additional teaching materials according to their learning style to use in reviewing the lessons. All students took a posttest for each lecture after reviewing the lesson.

The results showed that the medical students preferred a multimodal learning style (70.65%) more than a unimodal learning style (29.35%). The medical students preferred four learning styles (VARK) more than two and three learning styles. All learning styles had a mean difference score (posttest score minus pretest score) above 27.00 (33.75%). There were no significant differences in mean difference scores among the different learning styles. In addition, there were no significant differences in mean difference scores between the single style preference, two style preferences, three style preferences, and four style preferences.

Teaching based on the VARK learning style could enhance medical students' learning in medical biochemistry. The difference in learning style and the difference in the number of learning styles (single, two, three, and four style preferences) were not significantly related to medical students' learning achievement in medical biochemistry.