A Study of Dental Student's Attitudes toward the Educational Environment of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran, Using the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure

Educational institutes have different approaches to the evaluation of their activities. Many factors in the teaching process affect the learning process. This study investigated the attitudes of dental students in the School of Dentistry of Kerman University of Medical Sciences (Iran) toward the current educational condition and learning atmosphere using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM).
This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 205 dental students in 2013. DREEM includes questions on demographic information and 50 questions in 5 subscales (students’ perceptions of learning, student's perceptions of teachers, student's academic self-perceptions, student's perceptions of atmosphere and student's social self-perceptions). The collected data were then analyzed using SPSS software.
The mean of the achieved scores in the 5 subscales was 152.23 ± 15.63 out of 250 among men and 164.64 ± 18.80 among women. Amongst the study population, 9% found the educational conditions highly undesirable. Statistically significant differences were observed only for the learning subscale between the 3rd-year and 4th-year students.
Students’ attitudes toward the learning environment of Kerman University of Medical Sciences were mostly positive, but there were some inconsistencies. It seems that stress, fatigue, and lack of feedback from teachers has caused negative emotions among students.