title: The relationship between learning preferences (styles and approaches) and learning outcomes among pre-clinical undergraduate medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Learning styles and approaches of individual undergraduate medical students vary considerably and as a consequence, their learning needs also differ from one student to another. This study was conducted to identify different learning styles and approaches of pre-clinical, undergraduate medical students and also to determine the relationships of learning preferences with performances in the summative examinations.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 419 pre-clinical, undergraduate medical students of the International Medical University (IMU) in Kuala Lumpur. The number of students from Year 2 was 217 while that from Year 3 was 202. The Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, Kinesthetic (VARK) and the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) questionnaires were used for data collection.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This study revealed that 343 students (81.9%) had unimodal learning style, while the remaining 76 (18.1%) used a multimodal learning style. Among the unimodal learners, a majority (30.1%) were of Kinesthetic (K) type. Among the middle and high achievers in summative examinations, a majority had unimodal (Kinaesthetic) learning style (30.5%) and were also strategic/deep learners (79.4%). However, the learning styles and approaches did not contribute significantly towards the learning outcomes in summative examinations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A majority of the students in this study had Unimodal (Kinesthetic) learning style. The learning preferences (styles and approaches) did not contribute significantly to the learning outcomes. Future work to re-assess the viability of these learning preferences (styles and approaches) after the incorporation of teaching-learning instructions tailored specifically to the students will be beneficial to help medical teachers in facilitating students to become more capable learners.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre, International Medical University, No. 126, Jalan Jalil Perkasa 19, Bukit Jalil, 57000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. siawcheok_liew@imu.edu.my.
authors.forename: Siaw-Cheok
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Liew
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre, International Medical University, No. 126, Jalan Jalil Perkasa 19, Bukit Jalil, 57000, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. jagmohni_sidhu@imu.edu.my.
authors.forename: Jagmohni
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sidhu
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, International Medical University, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. ankur_barua@imu.edu.my.
authors.forename: Ankur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barua
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult