DOI: 10.36347/sjds.2016.v03i05.004

Pages: 141-146

Abstract: Educational environment is very essential for the students’ effective learning and assessing the dentistry clinical educational environments is very complex and challenging. The aim of this study was the evaluation of Kerman’s dental students’ perspective of the educational environment at the department of pediatric dentistry. This cross-sectional descriptive analytic study was performed on 86 dental students studying at the school of dentistry of Kerman University of medical science. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first section of the included the demographic information (gender, years of education, the score obtained for the pediatric dentistry courses, and their total grade-point average (GPA). the second section included 19 questions about educational environment at the department of pediatric dentistry. The data were statistically analyzed with Spss 18 software, independent T test, ANOVA, post hoc and Pearson correlation coefficient. The significance level was 5%. Of the 86 dental students, who participated in this study, 68.6% of the participants were female and the rest were male. 58.1% of the participants were sixth year, and 41.9% of them were fifth year students. The results of this study showed that the dental students with a GPA under 14 had a significantly lower perspective score compared to the students with a GPA of 14-16.99 (P = 0.013). 50.7% of the participants have reported that demonstration on patient by teachers is more efficient for increases the readiness of dental students. 54.7% of the dental students described the physical environment to be favorable, while 41.8% reported the units to be unfavorable and very unfavorable regarding their performance and state. Based on the results of this study the perspective of the Kerman dental students in towards the educational environment of pediatric dentistry was favorable. The quality of the units in the department was the only