Evaluating the educational program of pediatric dentistry from the students’ point of view in Tehran Azad University based on CIPP Moddle

Assessment is an important aspect of education. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the educational program of department of pedodontics from the perspective of Tehran Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences undergraduate students based on the CIPP evaluation model.

In this descriptive-analytical study, the DREEM questionnaire consists of  50 questions in 5 areas of student perception of learning, professors, educational atmosphere, academic ability, and social conditions ,and the product questionnaire includes three checklists made by the researcher based on the pediatric dentistry program according to the curriculum of the Ministry of Health, which the validity and reliability had been confirmed, were distributed by census method among 209 students who had passed 1st, 2nd and 3rd practical pediatric dentistry . Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to determine the normality and the data were analyzed by One-way ANOVA, Tukey HSD and Regression tests and values less than 0.05 were considered significant.

In product context, the response "I can do it alone" was 56.34%, 59.73%, and 55.62% for 1st, 2nd and 3rd practical pediatric dentistry respectively. The average score of the DREEM questionnaire was 113.79 out of 200 total scores (56.89%). The average range of students' perception of their social conditions based on academic semester had a significant difference (p=0.004). The average perception of students about their social conditions in the 10th semester students was significantly higher than the 11th semester (p=0.003). Age, gender and entrance type did not have a significant effect on the determination of students' perceptions in different areas and the overall score of the DREEM questionnaire (p>0.05), however, gender had a significant inverse relationship with students' perception of their social conditions (standardized beta = 0.136, P = 0.079) (P value > 0.1).

The findings of the present study indicate that the students' perception of the Pediatric Dentistry Department of Tehran Islamic Azad University of Medical Sciences was in a favorable condition in the context and product areas, and it seems that this group has been successful in achieving its educational goals.