Assessing dental students' professional satisfaction with operative dentistry teaching and curriculum: A study in Saudi Arabia

Variables influencing students' course quality evaluation: A cross-sectional study for a bachelor's degree dental program

PURPOSE

This cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate and predict variables that influence the Students' Course Evaluation Surveys (SCES) in a bachelor's degree of dental medicine and surgery program.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Data from the Faculty of Dental Medicine for the academic year 2021-2022 were analyzed including 39 course reports, students' course evaluation surveys, students' academic performance data, and the program specification. The survey contains 24 statements that evaluate five main domains of the courses, which are course syllabus, staff performance through the course, course learning resources, course execution, and course quality.

RESULTS

Chi-squared Test revealed no significant association between the total average students' evaluation score of the course against factors such as student's level, term, main mode of instruction, course category, department, and course director's gender, academic experiences, and nationality. On the other hand, pairwise comparisons revealed that grades from A+ to C were predictors of the total average SCES scores (p ≤ 0.004). Using the Paired Samples T-Test, the student's evaluation scores for their course were found to be significantly higher for females than males (mean ± SD = 50.56 ± 24.3 vs. 41.00 ± 26.3, p = 0.042). Using Pearson correlations, results showed a significant association of total average students' course evaluation scores against factors such as average course syllabus, staff performance, course learning resources, course execution, and course quality (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Average course syllabus, staff performance, course learning resources, course execution, and course quality are major predictor variables that influence SCES scores in the examined program. Enhancing these domains will be of great importance to improve the quality of the courses at the dental bachelor level.

Undergraduate Students' Experience of Dental Education Programs across Saudi Arabia: An Exploratory Study

Background

Students' satisfaction surveys are valuable tools for assessing and improving the quality of education being imparted. Limited data are available from Saudi Arabia regarding students experience at halfway through an undergraduate dental program.

Objective

To determine students' perception of their halfway experience on various attributes of the quality of dental education programs in public dental schools across Saudi Arabia.

Methods

This exploratory study included all students from four major public universities who had completed their third year of undergraduate dental education during the academic year 2022-23. A previously validated, self-administered, 23-item Students Experience Survey was modified and used to collect data regarding the following five factors: course characteristics, infrastructure and facilities, learning resources, instructor characteristics, and program efficacy.

Results

The questionnaire was administered to 296 students, of which 252 (85.1%) responded. Overall, 84% of the students had a positive experience regarding the quality of the dental education programs. Females reported significantly higher positive experiences than males (mean score: 4.36 vs. 4.21, respectively; P = 0.042). Course characteristics (P = 0.041), instructors' characteristics (P = 0.002), and program efficacy (P = 0.009) were significant predictors of students' overall experience.

Conclusion

This study found that the majority of students had a positive halfway experience with the quality of dental education programs offered in Saudi Arabia. The significant predictors of satisfaction identified in this study can be useful for policymakers to further improve satisfaction levels.

Evaluation of national dental curriculum in Iran using senior dental students' feedback

BACKGROUND

Dental curriculums require regular revision to stay up to date in scientifical and societal fields. Senior dental students are among the main stakeholders of such curriculums. The present study investigated the opinions of Iranian senior dental students regarding the adequacy of their dentistry program and the national dental curriculum in training a competent dentist, the program's content, and its structure.

METHODS

A previously designed and validated questionnaire on the opinion of senior dental students regarding curriculum adequacy was sent to a representative in each of the country's dental schools. Before the COVID pandemic terminated data collection, a total of 16 schools (438 students) managed to respond (37%). The questionnaire asked the students to assess the adequacy of the training received in curriculum's theoretical and practical competencies with the help of a five-point Likert scale that ranged from "Completely inadequate" to "Completely adequate". It also questioned them on its teaching methods and intensity. SPSS software version 24 and Chi-square test served for statistical analysis.

RESULTS

In total, the study has 438 participants, 245 female and 193 male. Significant sex differences were spotted in the responses concerning both theoretical and practical training. Regarding general training adequacy, 50 (22.6%) female students and 50 male ones (30.7%), P = 0.08 agreed that the program was acceptable. The numbers for students of old (more than 15 years of activity) and new schools were 47 (21.7%) and 53 (31.7%), respectively (P = 0.03). Nearly one-third deemed the teaching methods appropriate. Regarding the duration of curriculum phases, 33 students (8.3%) believed that basic science required extension, while 108 (28.6%) and 266 (69.1%) reported such need for pre-clinical and clinical phases. The school's years of activity emerged as significant, as 38.1% of students from new schools versus 21.7% of those from old ones deemed the extension of pre-clinical phase necessary (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

A significant number of Iranian senior dental students found the undergraduate dental curriculum inadequate regarding competencies, content, and teaching. Further investigations will determine whether it's the curriculum or its implementation that warrants revision.

Teacher's Emotional Display Affects Students' Perceptions of Teacher's Competence, Feelings, and Productivity in Online Small-Group Discussions

Teacher's emotions have been shown to be highly important in the quality and effectiveness of teaching and learning. There is a recognized need to examine the essential role of teacher's emotions in students' academic achievement. However, the influence of teacher's displays of emotions on students' outcomes in small-group interaction activities, especially in the online environment, has received little attention in prior research. The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between teacher's different emotional displays and students' perceptions of the teacher's competence, as well as students' collaborative feelings and productivity in online small-group discussions. Using a three-level between-subjects design, 74 participants were randomly divided into four-member groups comprising a teacher and three other participants. All the groups were asked to discuss an open-ended realistic problem using online software, during which the teacher's display of emotions varied (positive vs. negative vs. neutral). The participants' self-reported questionnaire data (perception of the teacher's competence, students' feeling of pleasure, collaborative satisfaction, and willingness to continue collaborating) and productivity (number of effective ideas expressed within a given time) were measured to compare the participants who were exposed to different emotional displays. As expected, the results showed that the participants who received the teacher's positive emotional display reported that they experienced higher levels of pleasure during the task. However, in contrast to our expectations, those under the negative emotional display condition showed a significantly higher level of productivity in the group task. In addition, compared to emotional display, the participants' perceptions of the teacher's competence were rated significantly higher under the neutral condition, and they reported higher levels of collaborative satisfaction and greater willingness to continue collaborating with their group. The findings have the potential benefit of informing educational practice on whether teachers should display their emotions in a small-group discussion or how they should display emotions following adjustment for the relative aim of the teaching activities.