Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure of Dentistry: Analysis of Dental Students' Perception about Educational Environment in College of Dentistry, Mustaqbal University

Gurleen Arora; Shazia Nawabi; Mudit Uppal; Muhammad Qasim Javed; Shaikh Shoeb Yakub; Muhammad Umar Shah

doi:10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_278_21

Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure of Dentistry: Analysis of Dental Students' Perception about Educational Environment in College of Dentistry, Mustaqbal University

J Pharm Bioallied Sci. 2021 Nov;13(Suppl 2):S1544-S1550. doi: 10.4103/jpbs.jpbs_278_21. Epub 2021 Nov 10.

Authors

Gurleen Arora¹, Shazia Nawabi², Mudit Uppal³, Muhammad Qasim Javed⁴, Shaikh Shoeb Yakub⁴, Muhammad Umar Shah⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Prosthodontics, College of Dentistry, Mustaqbal University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Prosthodontics, College of Dentistry, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Restorative Dentistry, College of Dentistry, Mustaqbal University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Conservative Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Qassim University, Buraydah, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Prosthodontics and Implantology, King Faisal University, Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Introduction: Evaluation of the educational environment is an important element which can be used to improve our curriculum. The aims and objectives of this cross-sectional study were to identify the student's perception about educational environment in College of Dentistry, Mustaqbal University. As the educational environment has a significant impact on the learning and academic performance of the students, the present study will help us identify areas of improvement and refining the dental curriculum.

Materials and methods: A total of 120 students of year 4, 5, 6, and interns, both male and female, responded to the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) in the 1^st month of the second semester, 2021. This scale measures the student's perceptions of the educational environment overall and for five domains: learning, teaching, academic self-perception, atmosphere, and social self-perception.

Results: A total of 92 students responded and were generally positive about their learning environment, with a total DREEM score of 130.87 ± 32.73/200. The lowest score for Domain 5 (social self-perception) and the highest score for Domain 1 (student's perception of learning.) were noted.

Conclusion: Students' perception of educational environment of College of Dentistry, Mustaqbal University, was more positive than negative. This study provided a valuable insight of how students perceive their course and identified several weak areas that need to be worked upon, hence helping in improvement of the curriculum.

Keywords: Clinical clerkship; Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure; clinical learning environment; dental clinics; dental students.