Assessment of teaching strategies and learning style preferences of lecturers and oral hygiene students at a higher education institution in South Africa

Abstract

INTRODUCTION : Lecturers and students at tertiary institutions have different teaching strategies and learning styles (TS&LS) and it is essential to align these strategies and styles to ensure that students understand the concepts they are taught. This study was conducted to assess and compare the TS&LS preferences among lecturers and undergraduate oral hygiene students at a university in South Africa. METHODS : A cross-sectional study was conducted, inviting all full-time lecturers (35) and undergraduate dental hygiene students (40) registered for the 2021 academic year to participate. The visual, auditory, reading and kinesthetic (VARK) teaching and learning questionnaires (version 7.8) for lecturers and students respectively was utilised to capture the necessary information. This is a validated questionnaire and consists of a variety of questions which students complete using a multiple-choice approach. SPSS statistical package, version 27 was used for statistical analysis with a significance of p< 0.05. RESULTS : Twenty-seven (27) lecturers (77%) and 40 students (100%) completed the questionnaire. The highest mean teaching scores were in visual (6.44) and auditory (6.22) teaching styles. The highest mean learning scores was auditory (6.43) and visual (5.98). The kinesthetic sensory modality constituted the lowest mean score in both lecturers and students. The majority of lecturers (63%) preferred using a single mode of teaching while 77% of students preferred learning using a multimode approach. CONCLUSIONS : The most common teaching and learning scores corresponded with each other. The preferred teaching strategy of lecturers was unimodal while the majority of students preferred a multimodal means of teaching. As a result, to improve student understanding and learning lecturers should use multimodal means of teaching.