Students’ Perceptions of the Educational Environment in a New Dental School in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

The educational climate surrounding students is considered as one of the factors determining academic success. Students and teachers have become aware of the 'educational environment' of their institution. Health science courses in Nigerian universities employ a combination of traditional classroom and clinical learning methods. There is however a scarcity of empirical evidence that evaluates this balance or the way dental students perceive its delivery. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate, by way of student perceptions, the overall education environment within dental surgery courses in a new Nigerian dental school that employs a balance of traditional classroom-based teaching and clinical work. We used a short demographic questionnaire and the 50-item DREEM questionnaire administered during teaching sessions to collect information on the students’ perception of the environment in their dental school.We recorded high total DREEM scores across the different year levels of enrolment with a total DREEM mean score of 138.2 and also identified problem areas which centered on timetabling, emphasis on factual learning, boredom and stress.Formative assessment structure for students, attention to timetabling, improved administration, and systems to identify stressed students are our key recommendations.

Keywords: Dental students, learning environment, educational environment.