Students’ perceptions regarding educational environment in an Indian dental school

Figures & data

Table

Practice points
Understanding the students’ perceptions of the academic environment is a must. The DREEM questionnaire did the job admirably. The academic atmosphere was not very congenial due to the course organizers’ authoritarian attitude, according to the students. A make over on the part of the teachers with respect to approach and attitude towards students has been made obvious.

Table 1.  Mean (SD) DREEM domain scores for first year and final year dental students

Domain	First year	Final year
Students perception of learning	2.73 (0.38)	2.10 (0.56)
Students perception of teachers	2.66 (0.41)	2.28 (0.56)
Students academic self perception	2.74 (0.50)	2.10 (0.60)
Students perceptions of atmosphere	3.92 (0.47)	2.11 (0.61)
Students social self-perceptions	2.69 (0.39)	2.11 (0.64)
Total DREEM domain score	14.74 (0.54)	10.70 (0.07)
Total DREEM item score for the group	116 (0.91)	114 (1.12)

Table 2.  Mean (SD) DREEM item scores in which significant differences were observed between first year and final year dental students

Domain	Number	Item	First year	Final year	p-value
SPL	1	I am encouraged to participate in teaching sessions	3.03 (0.64)	2.26 (1.11)	0.000
	7	The teaching is often stimulating	2.96 (0.53)	2.01 (1.02)	0.002
	13	The teaching is registrar centered	2.80 (0.87)	2.20 (1.22)	0.001
	16	The teaching helps me to develop my confidence	2.82 (0.92)	2.28 (0.99)	0.01
	20	The teaching is well focused	3.09 (0.66)	2.47 (0.83)	0.000
	21	I feel I am being well prepared for my profession	3.12 (0.83)	1.73 (1.04)	0.000
	25	The teaching overemphasizes factual learning	1.46 (0.96)	1.42 (0.86)	0.01
	38	I am clear about the learning objectives of the course	2.92 (0.82)	2.52 (0.830	0.001
	44	The teaching encourages me to be an active learner	2.98 (0.77)	2.09 (1.05)	0.000
	47	Long term learning is emphasized over short term learning	2.79 (0.86)	2.25 (1.03)	0.2
	48	The teaching is too centered	1.93 (1.02)	1.5890.94)	0.002
SPT	2	The course organizers are knowledgeable	3.28 (0.58)	2.96 (0.71)	0.07
	6	The course organizers espouse a patient centered approach to consulting	2.46 (0.96)	1.88 (1.01)	0.001
	8	The course organizers ridicule their registrars	2.34 (1.17)	1.71 (1.00)	0.000
	9	The course organizers are authoritarian	1.66 (1.07)	1.09 (0.99)	0.001
	18	The course organizers appear to have effective communication skills with patients	2.92 (0.65)	2.88 (0.78)	0.006
	29	The course organizers are good at providing feed back to registrars	2.84 (0.86)	2.11 (1.06)	0.000
	32	The course organizers provide constructive criticism here	2.61 (0.86)	2.11 (1.16)	0.5
	37	The course organizers give clear examples	3.00 (0.69)	2.52 (0.91)	0.000
	39	The course organizers get angry in teaching sessions	2.41 (0.87)	2.12 (0.02)	0.009
	50	The registrars irritate the course organizers	2.61 (0.95)	2.17 (1.11)	0.04
SASP	5	Learning strategies which worked for me before continue to work for me now	2.57 (0.97)	1.96 (1.07)	0.001
	10	I am confident about passing this year	3.36 (0.84)	2.50 (1.07)	0.002
	22	I feel I am being well prepared for my profession	3.01 (0.75)	2.14 (1.04)	0.000
	31	I have learnt a lot about empathy in my profession	2.59 (0.89)	2.25 (1.06)	0.000
	45	Much of what I have to learn seems relevant to a career in health care	3.04 (0.81)	2.34 (1.01)	0.000
SPA	11	The atmosphere is relaxed during consultation and teaching	2.93 (0.87)	2.31 (1.11)	0.000
	12	The course is well time tabled	3.17 (0.81)	2.52 (1.20)	0.001
	17	Cheating is a problem in this course	2.12 (1.23)	1.49 (1.31)	0.002
	23	The atmosphere is relaxed during lectures	2.90 (0.85)	2.63 (1.00)	0.000
	30	There are opportunities for me to develop interpersonal skills	3.03 (0.76)	2.15 (1.08)	0.000
	33	I feel comfortable in teaching sessions socially	2.88 (0.740	2.34 (1.00)	0.006
	34	The atmosphere is relaxed during seminars/tutorials	2.77 (0.92)	2.11 (1.07)	0.001
	35	I find the experience disappointing	2.80 (0.96)	1.87 (1.19)	0.000
	36	I am able to concentrate well	2.90 (0.66)	2.17 (1.05)	0.000
	42	The enjoyment outweighs the stress of studying medicine	2.38 (0.99)	1.46 (1.05)	0.000
	43	The atmosphere motivated me as a learner	2.84 (0.840	2.01 (1.08)	0.000
	49	I feel able to ask the questions I want	2.46 (1.10)	2.23 (1.07)	0.01
SSSP	3	There is a good support system for registrars who get stressed	2.46 (0.99)	1.36 (1.03)	0.001
	4	I am too tired to enjoy this course	2.15 (0.98)	1.96 (1.07)	0.002
	14	I am rarely bored on this course	2.26 (1.01)	1.63 (1.11)	0.001
	15	I have good friends in this course	3.06 (0.94)	2.74 (1.10)	0.000
	28	I seldom feel lonely	2.69 (0.81)	1.98 (1.22)	0.000
	46	My accommodation is pleasant	2.98 (0.79)	2.60 (1.00)

Table 3.  Mean DREEM item scores in which significant differences were not observed between first year and final year dental students

Domain	Item no.	Item	Final year	First year	p-value
SSP	19	My social life is good	3.22 (0.60)	2.41 (1.14)	0.806
SPL	24	The teaching time is put to good use	2.82 (0.94)	2.34 (1.10)	0.107
SASP	26	Last years work has been a good preparation for this years work	2.25 (0.96)	2.14 (1.09)	0.859
SASP	27	I am able to memorize all I need	2.47 (1.06)	1.47 (1.01)	0.546
SPT	40	The course organizers are well prepared for their teaching sessions	3.09 (0.73)	2.84 (0.78)	0.094
SASP	41	My problem solving skills are being well developed here.	2.57 (0.96)	1.93 (0.93)	0.063

Figure 1. Item mean score for the first and final year students.