Abstract
Introduction: Established in 2007, Peninsula Dental School offers a highly innovative,
enquiry-based, student-led, patient-centred curriculum. It is one of the first dental
schools in UK to be based exclusively in a primary care setting. This study was carried
out to evaluate the academic environment at Peninsula Dental School and to identify
differences between expectations of new entrants and perceptions of senior cohorts.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey utilising an online questionnaire based on
Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM). The subjects were 234 dental
students from all years in this enquiry-based Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme.
Results: The response rate to the questionnaire was 56.42% with an equal gender distribution
of the participants. The overall mean DREEM score of the four cohorts was
143.58 (SD ± 20.84), and the mean score for individual items was 2.87 (SD ± 0.41).
The reliability of the DREEM data as a whole was strong (a = 0.93). The difference in
questionnaire means for the new entrants and the senior cohorts was not significant
(P > 0.05). The ANOVA results showed that there were no significant effects of age,
gender or ethnicity on the mean DREEM scores. The MANOVA results showed a significant
effect of ethnicity with regard to perceptions of teachers and atmosphere.
Conclusions: An enquiry-based, student-centred curriculum at the Peninsula Dental
School provides a positive academic environment for the students.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 102-109 |
Number of pages | 0 |
Journal | European Journal of Dental Education |
Volume | 0 |
Issue number | 0 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - May 2012 |
Keywords
- dental education
- environment
- curriculum
- enquiry-based learning
- Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure