The Learning Styles and the Preferred Teaching-Learning Strategies of First Year Physiotherapy Students

Adults have different learning styles. Thus the aim of this study was to determine the preferred learning style and specific teaching-learning methods of physiotherapy students. A cross sectional study was conducted on 36 first year physiotherapy students at the department of physiotherapy, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. The students were asked to rank lectures, tutorials, practical and self-study from the most preferred to the least preferred one. The most preferred teaching-learning method among all the students was lectures (61%), followed by practical (27%), self-study (6%) and tutorials (6%). there was no significant difference among male and female students on the preferred VARK mode. In conclusion, the results of this study showed that the educators’ awareness of the various learning styles may create effective learning environment for students.