Role of gender and linguistic background on students' learning styles in an inter-professional science unit

Inter-professional education is the current trend in health related degree programs. This study aimed to determine the role of gender and linguistic background on students’ learning styles in a science unit. Human Biology 1 is the inter-professional unit taken by Nursing, Physiotherapy and Exercise Science students at the Australian Catholic University. Students were invited to participate in a survey, which consisted of questions requesting demographic information and their learning preference(s) based on the “VARK” sensory modalities: visual, aural, reading-writing, and kinesthetic; an English Language Acculturation scale was also used. Analysis of responses indicated an overall student preference for multiple learning styles: 47% of females and 42% of males stated that they were quad-modal learners, with approximately a quarter of either gender preferring uni-modal learning style. Of the 26% of students being uni-modal learners, 25 were from ESB and 35 from NESB; and, of the 45% being quad-modal learners, 50 were from ESB and 54 from NESB. This study provides evidence that students had similar learning preferences in the science unit, irrespective of gender or linguistic background, and that more students can be reached through multi-modal instruction in an inter-professional science unit.