The Opinion of Dental Students of Kerman, Iran, Regarding their Achievement Level in Learning Objectives of Pediatric Dentistry Courses

Pediatric dentistry is one of the basic sciences related to oral health. The aim of the present study is to assess the opinion of dental students of Kerman, Iran, concerning education in preclinical and clinical pediatrics in order to determined shortcomings and deficiencies. This cross-sectional study was performed on students who choose practical pediatric dentistry courses. Data collection was performed by a questionnaire which includes two parts; demographic characteristics and educational aims of pediatric dentistry courses. Student’s independent t-test, ANOVA, and chi-square were applied to analyze the data by SPSS software. Results showed that 38.9% of students in the Pediatric-1 course evaluated their satisfaction with achieving educational aims as quite satisfactory, 47.2% as satisfactory, and 13.9% as unsatisfactory. The Pediatric 2 and 3 courses were evaluated as quite satisfactory by 54.3% and 35.5% of students, satisfactory by 25.7% and 58.1%, and unsatisfactory by 20% and 6.5%, respectively. In the Pediatric 3 course, more than 90% of students evaluated their achievement of educational aims as quite satisfactory or satisfactory. It seems that with increase in the number of courses passed, the level of achievement of educational aims also increases.