The Australian DREEM: evaluating student perceptions of academic learning environments within eight health science courses

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this cross sectional study is to investigate student perceptions of learning environments at a major Australian University. Various aspects of environment are compared between courses, year levels, educational backgrounds and gender. Methods: The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) and a demographic questionnaire were completed by 548 undergraduate students enrolled in the emergency health, midwifery, radiography and medical imaging, occupational therapy, pharmacy, nutrition and dietetics, physiotherapy and social work courses at Monash University. Convenience sampling was used and scores were compared across grouping variables identified via demographic information. Results: Scores across the sample were fairly high (M = 137.3; SD = 18.3), indicating an overall positive perception of learning environments among students. Total scores were significantly higher for females (M = 138.8; SD = 17.2) than males (M = 132.3; SD = 20.7; t(545) = 3.51; p = 0.002) and this trend was consistent across all aspects of perceived learning environment (although not always significant). Students who enrolled in their course directly after completing high school yielded less positive ratings on some DREEM subscales than students who did not enrol immediately after completing high school. Conclusions: The positive perception held by Monash University health science students towards their education and learning environments is hopefully indicative of similar courses within Australia and internationally. While future studies may help confirm this, the current findings offer a chance to explore the underlying causes of this positivity in more depth as well as compare similarities and differences between the specific health science disciplines.

Survey of Midwifery Students' Perception of the Educational Environment Based on DREEM Model at Islamic Azad University of Mashhad in the Academic Year 2014

“…In this study, the scores were as follows: 33.3 in the learning domain, 31.2 in the teachers' domain, 21.0 in the student's academic self-perceptions domain, 31.6 in the atmosphere domain and 18.4 in the students' social self-perception domain. 6 In comparison with midwifery students in the present study, these students gave higher scores. This reveals that there are more positive points in that university in comparison with the medical school of Islamic Azad University of Mashhad.…”

“…Brown, Williams & Lynch performed a study in this regard at Monash University, which is the main medical science university in Australia. 6 It was done among 8 groups of students who were majoring in emergency medicine, midwifery, radiology & imaging, occupational therapy, pharmacology, nutrition and diet therapy, physiotherapy and social work. The general average score was 137.3 and the score related to midwifery students was 135.5.…”

“…This questionnaire can be used for identifying weak and strong points, comparatively analyzing one's own educational setting and those of others and testing and predicting the practical capacity of the students. 6 Internationally, there have been a number of studies conducted in this area; for example, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Nigeria, Chile, Kuwait, Jamaica, Yemen, Canada and India reported more positive points than negative ones. [7][8][9] Similar results were achieved based on the average scores in Gadjah Mada University of Indonesia (117) and Shay Yang Nursing faculty of China (132).…”

Determining the Quality of Educational Climate in a Private Medical College in Bangladesh via the ‘Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure’ Instrument

“…4 It is also accepted that a positive learning environment during undergraduate education can lead to increased satisfaction, achievement and success as a practitioner. 5,6 The educational environment has been defined as "environment experienced or perceived by the students as well as by the teachers". 7 These perceptions would be based on three important aspects which include: the physical environment, emotional climate, and intellectual climate.…”

Educational environment of nursing undergraduates in University of Ruhuna: effect of gender

“…The DREEM was originally used to evaluate learning environments of medical students, whose course curriculum had rapidly changed during a period of major reforms in traditional teaching methods up until and during the 1990s; particularly a trend towards a more student centred curriculum. A Delphi technique, involving a panel of 30 faculty members from around the world, was used to generate criteria indicative of desirable education climates for health professions in light of the new curriculum standards including allied health sciences (Brown et al, 2011). To the best of our knowledge, no previous research has used the DREEM to assess perceptions of Allied Health students regarding educational environment at medical schools in Sri Lanka other than evaluating medical students' perceptions on their degree programme (Jiffry et al, 2005).…”