The perception of the educational environment in multinational students from a dental medicine faculty in Romania

Abstract

Introduction Dental education comes with important challenges for the faculties as well as for the students. Its evolving nature leads to the constant adoption of new practices and techniques. Thus, the learning environment is in continuous development. This study aimed to describe a sample of senior undergraduate student's perceptions of their learning environment. Methods Students (both Romanian and international) enrolled in the 6th year at the Faculty of Dental Medicine from a Romanian University completed the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM). The scale measures students' perceptions of the education environment using five domains: Learning, Teaching, Academic self‐perception, Atmosphere and Social self‐perception. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, non‐parametric and univariate statistics for group comparison. Results Participants (N = 259, Romanian = 111, International = 148) had a good perception of their learning environment, with a total DREEM score of 117.82 out of 200. Still, they had a lower score in the areas of Academic and Social self‐perception. The international students had more negative perceptions of the learning environment compared to the Romanian ones. The French‐speaking students had the lowest scores on most of the areas. Conclusions Although the perception of medical dentistry education is generally good, international students are not as satisfied with the learning environment. The students' experiences could be improved by providing them with more social support. Also, it is important to address the needs of international students in order to create a more satisfying environment for them.

Comparisons Between Preclinical and Clinical Dental Students’ Perceptions of the Educational Climate at the College of Dentistry, Jazan University

“…28.08±5.29; and 17.64±3.03 for SPL, SPT, SASP, SPA, and SSSP, respectively. Those values were slightly higher than the values recorded in studies carried out in SA, [12][13][14][15][16] and equal or parallel with the values recorded by Al-Saleh et al, 9 in Riyadh, SA and outside SA in the European countries of Romania, 19 Spain, 21 Greece, 23 Germany, 23 in Pakistan, 25 in India, 27,30 and in Chile. 34 The DREEM subscales scores of the current study were lesser than that values documented in Nepal, India, Nigeria, Australia, and in New Zealand.…”

“…The DREEM is a multidimensional and multicultural tool that can measure the five separate basics of EC namely, learning, teachers, atmosphere, academic, and social selfperception. 3 DREEM has been used to highlight the weaknesses and strengths of an EC in several countries, and it has been translated and copied to many languages, such as Arabic, 9,[12][13][14][15][16] Turkish, 18 Romanian, 19 Spanish, 21 Greek, 22 Dutch 23 and Urdu. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] The current study measured the perceptions of the learning climate among a sample of Saudi dental students from the University of Jazan.…”

“…Consent forms were signed by all students at the beginning of the questionnaire. Ethical approval was gained from the Ethical Committee of the College of Dentistry, Jazan University (CODJU, 19,211). This study is in accordance with the guidelines of the World Medical Association Declaration of Helsinki.…”

“…3,8 DREEM has been successfully used in studies of heath science institutes throughout the world. It carried out studies of the EC in dental colleges in Saudi Arabia, 9,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Europe, [18][19][20][21][22][23] Asia, [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Africa, 32 North America, and the Caribbean. [33][34][35] Previous dental local and worldwide studies are presented in (Table 1).…”

Students at Saarland University dental school—A survey on their background and curriculum perception

“…Several reports can be found in the literature proving that dental students have higher levels of depression, anxiety or stress than the general population, 8,9 a problem for which integrated, active‐learning curricula 10 and concepts ensuring proper work‐life balance 11 may provide some relief. Due to the interdependent relationships between students, patients, instructors and administrators, 12 novel curricula should ensure the creation of an educational environment which is satisfying to future dentists 13,14 . Besides lecture formats which have been shown to be favourably organised in the form of problem based learning, 15 assessment of students' performance is also critical in this context with varying results being reported for traditional test methods 16,17 and objectively structured clinical examinations (OSCE) 18,19 …”