Challenges for Implementing General Dentistry Curriculum from Students' Viewpoint: A Qualitative Study

Revision of educational curricula is inevitable for various reasons, including the emergence of new sciences, personal interest of new faculty members, demographic changes, advancement in biological sciences, and fundamental changes in the delivery of health services. Therefore, assessing the views of the stakeholders of educational curricula could be a guide for educational planners. The present study aimed to investigate the challenges of implementing the general dentistry curriculum in the viewpoint of the students in the academic year 2017-2018.

This study was based on the conventional quality content analysis, and data were collected via group interviews. The participants were selected via purposive sampling. In total, 10 general dentistry students assigned with the recently revised general dentistry curriculum were enrolled in the research. Data analysis was performed using the MAXQDA10 software.

After conducting the interviews and data analysis, 104 codes, 20 subcategories, and four categories emerged, including executive challenges (imprecise and inexperienced execution, lack of executive planning, and lack of coordination between the professors in the presentation of the integrated courses), educational challenges (inadequate sources of information to justify the students, limited time for training, inability to employ specialist professors for the new courses, educational injustice, inadequate integration, use of non-domiciled and untrained residents in educating the students, manners based on topic presentation, inappropriate contents in the new courses, non-compliance with the educational and preparatory prerequisites, and non-observance of the standards of medical hypotheses by the faculty members), additional and subjective challenges (reset-oriented and expert-oriented faculty members, lack of resources for problem design and practical solutions, habits of using the previous curriculum, and negative attitudes toward the new curriculum), and structural challenges (changes in the curriculum structure, physical facilities, and staff shortage of the faculty members).

According to the results, the challenges expressed by the students highlighted the need for a curriculum-led revision team, developing change-based backgrounds, provision of physical and human resources, pilot implementation of the curriculum, and monitoring by medical education professionals