IDENTIFY THE LEARNING STYLE PREFERENCE BY USING VARK (VISUAL, AUDITORY, READ, WRITE & KINESTHETICS) MODEL AMONG FIRST YEAR B.SC. NURSING STUDENTS AT SELECTED COLLEGE.

Abstract

Understanding students' learning preferences is critical in nursing education to enhance teaching efficacy and academic performance. The VARK model (Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinaesthetic) offers a framework to identify individual learning styles and guide instructional strategies accordingly.

Objective:  To identify the learning preference among nursing students and to determine the association between learning preferences with sociodemographic variables.

Materials and Methods: A facility-based, analytical cross-sectional study was conducted among 345 first-year B.Sc. Nursing students from five randomly selected nursing colleges in Lucknow. A pretested, interviewer-administered, semi-structured questionnaire, including the VARK inventory, was used to collect data. Sociodemographic variables and learning preferences were analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Associations were tested using the chi-square test, with p < 0.05 considered statistically significant.

Results: Unimodal learning preferences dominated across all learning scenarios, with Read/Write and Kinesthetic styles being the most common. Multimodal learners constituted a small proportion, ranging from 2.0% to 8.1% across different learning contexts. A significant association was found between learning style preferences and residential background (p = 0.04), family educational status (p = 0.000), and internet accessibility (p = 0.000). No significant association was observed with gender (p = 0.19).

Conclusion: The predominance of unimodal learning preferences among nursing students underscores the importance of customizing teaching methods to match learner profiles. Socio-environmental factors significantly influence learning preferences, emphasizing the need for inclusive, adaptable, and student-centered pedagogy in nursing education.