Learning style preferences: A study of pre-clinical medical students in Barbados.

Introduction: Educators need to be aware of different learning styles to effectively tailor instructional strategies and methods to cater to the students' learning needs and support a conductive learning environment. The VARK [an acronym for visual (V), aural (A), read/write (R) and kinesthetic (K)] instrument is a useful model to assess learning styles. The aim of this study was to use the VARK questionnaire to determine the learning styles of pre-clinical medical students in order to compare the perceived and assessed learning style preferences, assess gender differences in learning style preferences, and determine whether any relationships exists between awareness of learning styles and academic grades, age, gender and learning modality.

Wound healing activities of Bark Extract of Jatropha curcas Linn in albino rats.

Objective: To investigate the wound-healing properties of crude bark extract of Jatropha curcas Linn in Wistar albino rats.

Methods: This work was carried out in the Department of Biochemistry, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka, India, in the year 2005. We divided the animals into 3 groups of 12 each.