Perception of Students on the Educational Environment of Mashhad Dental School based on the DREEM Questionnaire during 2020-2021

The aim of this study was to assess perception of students on the educational environment of Mashhad Dental School using the DREEM questionnaire.

In this cross-sectional study, 427 DREEM questionnaires were completed by dental students attending Mashhad Dental School during the academic year of 2020-2021. The questionnaire contained five different domains including: student perceptions of learning, student perceptions of teachers, student academic self-perception, student perception of the educational atmosphere, and students social self-perception. The overall score and the scores of each domain of the DREEM questionnaire were then compared among the students. Independent t-test and Mann-Whitney test were used for statistical analysis. P<0.05 was set as significant.

Both the total score and the score of each domain of the DREEM questionnaire were all less than 2. Comparing the mean scores of each domain, basic sciences students had significantly higher scores in the “student perception of learning” domain than clinical sciences students. The mean overall score of DREEM and each domain were not significant between the two sexes. There were no questions in the "acceptable" status, 36 questions were in the "problematic”, and 14 were “in need of attention” status.

This study showed that students attending the Mashhad Dental School do not have a positive perception of the educational environment. Therefore, more coherent educational planning is required to improve the quality of the educational environment.