Undergraduate dental students’ perceptions of educational strategies at Foundation university college of dentistry

Abstract

Introduction The way student learns from a particular educational environment mainly depends on the students’ perception of the learning environment. Therefore, students’ perception of teaching methods not only influence their behavior towards learning but also on the teacher and subject itself. Hence the aim of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of educational strategies practiced at Foundation University College of Dentistry with the help of pre-validated student’s feedback questionnaire and to evaluate their curriculum according to the SPICES model.
Material and Methods: Students of 2nd and 3rd year BDS were asked to fill the pre-validated structured student’s feedback questionnaire. Questionnaire comprised of questions on teaching and learning methods and on the changes recommended. Descriptive statistics were used in the form of frequency distribution and percentages were used to analyze the data.
Results: Majority of students agreed that knowledge of the subjects taught helped in clinical understanding and application. 46.5% students felt strongly agreed that integration of basic science subjects with pre-clinical aspects of teaching will help in better understanding. Students strongly agreed that they were encouraged to ask questions during lectures and were satisfied with the delivery and pace of lectures. The students in this study emphasized the first three ideas of SPICES model, which included, student centered teaching, problem based learning and an integrated curriculum.
Conclusions: Feedback from the students is believed to be one of the most reliable method of assessment. In this study, majority of BDS students in FUCD were satisfied with the current educational strategies. Implementation of integrated teaching, case based and group based discussion was strongly appreciated/recommended by the students.