Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM)

A graduation project submitted by: Salam Majid Hamid Sarah Moged Akmoush Suha Karim Kaddam Samar Ghanem Waheed

Supervised by: Dr. Mohammed AL-Zobaidy

Introduction - Learning environment issues in higher education can be viewed through many perspectives as each school has its own understanding about its learning environment -learning environment must come from someone who is an expert in the education field. This is because historically -we need to understand the concept of the learning environment and implement it in our school appropriately -There is no universally agreed definition for educational environment/ climate - However, other researchers described educational environment in terms of its different aspects -Another important aspect is the quality of association between students and teachers

Introduction -Medical educational environment is one of the parameters to be investigated for the purpose of medical curriculum evaluation -In the present study, a quantitative approach was adopted to achieve the aims of the study -The most frequently used tool for measuring medical educational environment is the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure -The DREEM instrument is able to assess both components— theory and clinical practice

Methodology AL-Qadysia Dentistry College (QDC) 2017 *A descriptive study (cross-sectional) was used to assess student perception of educational environment of nursing program at AL-Qadysia Dentistry College (QDC) *All male and female medical students across years 3 and 4 the undergraduate dentistry course at QDC in the academic year 2016- 2017 *There are no risks or problems for participants as a result of taking part in this study. The researcher obtained permission from the Dean of the Dentistry College to contact the students

Methodology *In the present study the paper-based Arabic versions of two pre-validated questionnaires, the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM; 17) was used for collection of data *This questionnaire can be utilised to collect information useful for exploring fluctuations in educational environment caused by a spectrum of variables, such as students’ age, gender and year *The DREEM questionnaire can be interpreted in terms of its overall mean score and mean scores of its 5 individual subscales

Results Year of study No. of students No. of male students (%) No. of female students (%) 3rd 54 22(40.74) 32(59.26) 4th 46 20(43.45) 26(56.55) Total 100 42(42) 58(58)

Results DREEM Subscales 3rd year Mean(SD) 4th year Mean(SD) Overall Mean (SD) Maximum score Students' perception of learning (SPL) 23.63 (3.81) 22.59 (7.32) 23.15 (5.69) 48 Students' perception of teachers (SPT) 20.78 (4.57) 21.02 (7.96) 20.89 (6.29) 44 Students' academic self perception (SASP) 15.69 (3.18) 17.29 (5.89) 16.41 (4.65) 32 Students' perception of atmosphere (SPA) 27.23 (4.83) 22.71 (6.94) 25.19 (6.26) Students' social self perception (SSSP) 14.89 (3.40) 14.42 (4.94) 14.68 (4.15) 28

Discussion -The main objective of this study was to evaluate the educational environment at AL-Qadysia Dentistry College (QDC) as perceived by undergraduate students in their 3rd and 4th years of study for the academic year 2016/ 2017. -The college's learning environment is the atmosphere where students are expected to experience various learning activities -The results of this study showed that students perceived the college's educational environment as being unhelpful and problematic -Taking into account the similarities between dentistry and medical programmers, studies conducted in medical institutes running traditional medical programs

Conclusion -The DREEM is a useful instrument for evaluation of educational environment in healthcare proving institutes, as it provides helpful diagnostic data about weaknesses and strengths in educational environment so as to formulate remedial and corrective interventions. Also, it represents a useful tool to compare between different institutes whether they are governmental or private institutes -The results of this study indicate that educational environment at QDC is challenging and problematic and the educational process is more teacher-centered rather than student-centered. In addition, medical teachers in the school are knowledgeable and well-prepared for their teaching

Recommendations In light of the results of current study, improvements become necessary throughout the five domains of educational environment. Therefore, to create supportive learning environment that facilitates learning, we need to plan to implement remedial and corrective interventions

Limitations of the study *The need to compare education environments between Governmental nursing institutes.   *More investigations are needed before a corrective intervention is initiated.

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