scholarly journals Evaluation of the learning environment and the perceived weakness of the curriculum: student perspective

Author(s):  
Yasar Ahmed ◽  
Mohamed H. Taha ◽  
Salma Alneel ◽  
Abdelrahim M. Gaffar

Background: Educational environment has been shown to have influence on learning outcome and affects student achievement, satisfaction, and success. The study was conducted to assess medical students’ perception of their learning environment and to explore areas of weakness within the educational environment.Methods: A mixed method of study, was performed using non-probability sampling at the Faculty of Medicine, Gezira University (FMUG), Sudan. An updated Arabic Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) was developed and administered to 854 students during the academic year 2016-2017.Results: Seventy five percent of students completed the inventory (638/854) and Sixty four percent (546/854) responded to the open-ended question providing comments and suggestions. The overall reliability coefficient alpha in this study was 0.914. The global score for this study was found positive (122/200). Students were most satisfied with the learning aspects, academic environment, and academic self-perception. However, they were unsatisfied with their teaching and social atmosphere (inadequate social support for stressed students, substandard teaching, overemphasised factual learning, unpleasant accommodation). The qualitative content analysis was performed and emerged with four themes: the physical environment, a number of students, pedagogical approaches and faculty-student communication.Conclusions: The study suggested the overall students’ perceptions of the educational environment in the FMUG were on the positive side. However, certain specific elements of the learning environment and educational programme need to be critically investigated and remedied. The updated Arabic DREAM can be used reliably in the context of medical education in Arabic speaking countries.

Author(s):  
Shreekrishna Maharjan ◽  
Tripti Shakya

Background: Learning environment is how students perceive the climate of an institution. The strength and weakness of learning environment should be identified to help change, adjust and manage training programs with objectives for improving learning quality. Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) is a validated tool designed to measure educational environment specifically for medical schools and other health profession institutions. This tool has been used in 20 countries, including Nepal. The aim of this study was to determine the perception of medical students of Foundation Course toward their learning environment using this tool.Methods: The study was conducted among the medical students attending Foundation Course in School of Medicine at Patan Academy of Health Sciences in Nepal using the DREEM tool.Results: Total mean of DREEM score was 150.51 and that of subscales for Students' Perception of Learning (SPL), Students' Perception of Teachers (SPT), Students' Academic Self-Perception (SASP), Students' Perception of Atmosphere (SPOA) and Students' Social Self-Perception (SSSP) were 36.96/48, 34.01/44, 23.96/32, 36.03/48 and 19.55/28 respectively. In item scores, students scored more than 3 for 29 items, between 2 and 3 for 20 items and only 1 item received less than 2 score indicating an issue requiring attention on overemphasis of factual learning during the course.Conclusions: Students have a positive perception about their educational environment. Their perception is a valuable resource for institutional curriculum planners to make appropriate changes to enhance student learning. It is important to get feedbacks from students on how they are experiencing their learning environment.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Rebeca Do Vale Placa ◽  
Mariana S. Ragghianti Zangrando ◽  
Adriana C. P. Sant’Ana ◽  
Sebastião L. A. Greghi ◽  
Maria Lucia R. De Rezende ◽  
...  

<p class="apa">The evaluation of education environment is essential to provide to the professors a better understanding of the teaching process. One valuable tool for this assessment is the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM). This questionnaire has 50 questions and is divided in five dimensions: D1–Perceptions of teaching, D2–Perceptions of teacher, D3–Academic self-perceptions, D4–Perception of atmosphere, D5–Social self-perception. Although it was first elaborated to undergraduate medical students, it has been used to other health areas. The aim of this study was to evaluate learning environment of a dental postgraduate course in a Brazilian University. Twenty-one students of master degree and PhD program in Periodontics were invited to answer the DREEM questionnaire. The mean age of the students was 27.4 years old. The total DREEM mean was 146.8, presenting a positive learning environment. Possible correlations were analyzed by Spearman’s correlation test (P&lt;0.05). There was a positive correlation between total DREEM and all 5 dimensions (p&lt;0.05). The highest correlation was total DREEM with academic self-perceptions (r=0.938). There was no correlation between age and distance from parents home (p&gt;0.05). In conclusion, the postgraduate learning environment is positive and students are satisfied. This questionnaire was very efficient and provided important information to maintain or improve our learning environment.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 103-108
Author(s):  
Daniel Ojuka ◽  
Faith Aseta ◽  
Beth Githambo ◽  
Brian Wambua

Background: The educational environment (EE) has a significant influence on effective student learning. The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) is a validated tool to assess the EE. A DREEM survey done in early 2019 among medical students at the University of Nairobi highlighted many problems. It was therefore important to explore why such perceptions existed among the medical students. Objectives: To explore medical students’ perceptions ofthe medical education learning environment at the University of Nairobi. Methods: Qualitative focus group discussions (FGD) were held among medical students in years III to VI in groups of between 8and 12students. The discussions were recorded using a Samsung J6 phone voice recorder, transcribed, coded, and analysed for themes until saturation was reached. Results: We held six FGD with medical students in years III to VI and identified four thematic areas: 1) poor educational infrastructure, 2) poor educational structure, 3) teacher-centred teaching, and 4) lack of social support for students in difficulties. Conclusion: Exploring the perceptions of the EE confirmed students have a poor view of the educational environment. The issues raised are good feedback on teaching, governance and the social culture of the institution. Keywords: Learning environment, DREEM, Medical students, Qualitative methods 


2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Bakhshi ◽  
MH Bakhshialiabad ◽  
Gh Hassanshahi

Learning environment is found to be important in determining students’ academic success and learning. The goal of this study was to investigate the viewpoints of medical students toward learning environment based on The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) at Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences (RUMS). This descriptive study was conducted using the Persian DREEM questionnaire. All medical students in basic and clinical courses except internship students (fifth and sixth year) were approached to participate during the study period, of which 223 provided consent and completed the survey. Data were analyzed by SPSS-17, t-test and ANOVA statistical tests were used. The mean total score was 113.8±17.31 (out of a maximum of 200, 56.9%) indicating relative satisfaction with the perceived environment. There were no individual areas of excellence. Some items scored consistently badly indicating cause for concern. The highest score were related to Academic Self-Perception (64.11%) and learning (57.2%) domains. The lowest score were related to Teachers (55.9%), Social Self-Perceptions (56.6%) and atmosphere (55.8%) domains. Basic science students perceived the environment to be significantly more positive than preclinical students (p<0.05). Native and married students perceived the environment to be significantly more positive (p<0.05). Second and fourth year students were significantly higher than the others (P<0.01). There was significant difference between mean scores of total mean DREEM and sub-domains by year of enrolment (p=0.001). This tool identified areas of concern within RUMS medical school. Further use of the DREEM as a monitoring tool would be useful to re-evaluate the environment following appropriate intervention. To create an appropriate educational environment and reduce the deficits in order to provide a better learning environment with facilitate and supportive system for students. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bmrcb.v40i1.20335 Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2014; 40: 36-41


2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-102
Author(s):  
Daniel Ojuka ◽  
Faith Aseta ◽  
Beth Githambo ◽  
Brian Wambua

Background: The supportive learning environment can enhance impartating of knowledge and skills. Objective: To assess the learning environment at the School of Medicine of the University of Nairobi using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure(DREEM) tool. Methods: A cross-sectional survey carried in 2019 out among medical students during their clinical years to obtain their perceptions about the learning environment at the School of Medicine of the University of Nairobi. The DREEM tool was used for the survey. Data were entered and analyzed in SPSS version19. Comparisons were performed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). p≤0.05 was consideredstatistically significant. Results: We obtained 619 responses (77.4%) from 800 tools distributed. The total mean score of DREEM was 93.3/200. This is a 46.7%score overall indicating a poor perception of the learning environment. Year IV was the class with the poorest perception with a p<0.05. Conclusion: The DREEM score shows numerous problems, with perception of learning and social support being the areas requiring themost improvement. Although teachers are knowledgeable, students are wary of their ability to transfer knowledge and skills. Keywords: Learning environment, DREEM, Medical students


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamid Bakhshialiabad ◽  
Golnaz Bakhshi ◽  
Zahra Hashemi ◽  
Amirhosein Bakhshi ◽  
Faroukh Abazari

Abstract Background Students’ perception of the educational setting is an important source for improving and applying changes to the educational environment. In this study, we reassessed undergraduate students’ perception of the educational environment at two colleges of RUMS-Iran in the academic years of 2011 and 2016. Methods In the present prospective study, the DREEM inventory consisted of seven courses for undergraduate paramedical and nursing-midwifery students (n = 982). After the first stage, educational seminars and workshops were set up for academic members and faculty staff on deficiencies and the ideal climate for optimizing the educational environment. The results of students’ responses in 2011 were compared with those assessed in 2016. For the data analysis, the independent t-test and the one-way ANOVA were utilized. Results In the academic year of 2010–2011, the DREEM inventory scored 115.33/200 (57.66%); it also scored 123.47/200 (60.7%) in the academic year of 2015–2016 (p ≤ 0.01). There was an interesting feeling about the first-year education, and female students felt a more positively perceived learning environment during all courses than male students at both stages of the study. There were significant positive differences (2 to 7%) in all domains of the components of DREEM in all courses between the academic year of 2010–2011 and the academic year of 2015–2016, showing that the DREEM score had changed and increased (p < 0.05), in the latter case. Conclusions Positive differences were observed in DREEM scores between the two stages of the study. DREEM helped reduce the areas of deficiencies in students’ perception of many aspects of the educational environment. It also helped identify problematic areas in the improvement. In addition, DREEM could be used to optimize and make modifications to the educational environment.


Author(s):  
Agustina Arundina Triharja Tejoyuwono ◽  
Ita Armyanti ◽  
Rangga Putra Nugraha

Background: Medical science program Faculty of Medicine Tanjungpura University implements a Competency-Based Curriculum or in Indonesian called as Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi (KBK), corresponded to the Kurikulum Inti Pendidikan Tinggi III (KIPDI III). The curriculum is applied since academic year of 2005/2006 and has been evaluated into Curriculum of 2013 (Kurikulum 2013). Learning environment is the manifestation of a curriculum, so that the assessment of the environment in the institution of medical program is a part of the implementation of the evaluation of the curriculum. DREEM questionnaire (Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure) is one of the tools that are appropriate to measure the learning environment. This research aims to assess the students’ perception of the learning environment on academic year of 2013/2014.Method: This research is a descriptive study with cross sectional design, conducted to measure the learning environment in students of medical science program. The DREEM questionnaire was used as the measurement tool. This research was conducted in November 2013 at Faculty of Medicine Tanjungpura University, Pontianak, West Borneo.Results: The total score of the DREEM obtained in this research is 14,55/200, which shows that students considered the learning environment, including lecturers, social environment, learning process, academic achievement, and learning atmosphere as positive environment. The students assumed that the environment could still be improved by optimizing the resources.Conclusion: The students inferred that the learning environment could still be improved by optimizing the existing resources as well as getting support by the faculty and university administrators itself.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Nazziwa Aisha ◽  
Lwere Kamada ◽  
Tebetyo Zakia ◽  
Ankarali Handan ◽  
Ankarali Seyit

Background: The learners’ environment is crucial for development of professionals. In Uganda, there was no studies assessing the learning environment have been found. Objective: This study was performed to assess the undergraduate students’ perceptions of medical education in general and educational environment in a newly established faculty of medicine in Islamic University in Uganda.Materials and Methods: The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM), a validated inventory was distributed among undergraduate students in the first year of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery study. This scale consists a 50 item inventory each of the50 items is scored on a 5-point Likert scale (0 to4).Results: The average total DREEM score was found to be 127.5 (maximum point is 200 in the scale) for the students. This score was interpreted according to the practical guide of McAleer and Roff those students’ perceptions of their learning environment were more positive than negative. In addition, the descriptive values of 5 subdimensions of the scale were found as follows. The Perceptions of Learning dimension average is 33.69 ± 6.10, the Perceptions of Teachers dimension average is 25.89 ± 4.44, Students’ Academic Self-Perception 23.35 ± 3.91, Perceptions of Learning Atmosphere dimension average 29.83 ± 7.01 and Social self-perceptions dimension average 13.90 ± 3.92.Only the mean Social Self Perceptions sub-dimension score were below the expected average score (maximum score/2), and all of the other mean of dimensions were higher than the expected average. The best score is obtained from Perceptions of Learning. The items with low scores (less than 2) on the DREEM questionnaires were identified as in need of rehabilitation.Conclusion: On the whole, the study showed that the students’ perception of the educational environment and the teaching delivered were positive but the student’s social self-perception was not good. Measures to improve student’s social self-perception will be adopted.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Vol. 01 No. 01 January’17. Page : 26-29


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 238212052110187
Author(s):  
Marco Grech

Background: Burnout among postgraduate medical trainees is common. It is a syndrome characterised by emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment. Burnout is seen as an organisational problem rather than the result of an individual’s ability to cope with the stress at work. The educational environment can play a pivotal role in the prevention of burnout among postgraduate medical trainees. This narrative literature review is aimed at assessing the effect of the educational environment on burnout in postgraduate doctors-in-training. Methods: A search of the databases Medline and PscyInfo for articles published between 2015 and 2020 was performed with the key words ‘burnout’ and ‘educational environment’ or ‘clinical learning environment’ or ‘postgraduate medical education’ or ‘learning environment’. Results: A total of 27 studies were identified and reviewed by the author. The prevalence of burnout reported varied widely between studies, ranging from 10% to 62%. Many of the factors that contribute to burnout form part of the educational environment, for example, hours worked, mistreatment, harassment and perceptions of injustice. Residency itself is a stressful period wherein trainees have to balance their responsibilities towards their patients with their responsibilities at home, all while furthering their studies and taking on new responsibilities. Interventions to prevent burnout and tackle existing burnout are multiple but very little solid evidence exists to attest to their efficacy. More research is needed to identify the most effective ways to deal with burnout in postgraduate medical trainees.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 290-293
Author(s):  
A. Aldabergenova ◽  
◽  
L. Sarsenbaeva ◽  

The urgency of the problem of providing a developing educational environment in modern conditions is justified by the reform of the education system in the Republic of Kazakhstan. At all levels of education, it is necessary to create conditions for the development of the personality of the subjects of the educational process, taking into account age patterns. The article reveals the leading approaches to the study of the essence and provision of developing educational environment. As the theoretical basics of accepted socio-cultural approach of Vygotsky humanistic approach Maslow personality-oriented approach of I. A. Baeva, the ecological approach V. A. Asvina etc. Developing educational environment is considered as an environment conducive to the development and self-development at all levels of education. In the present article the condition of maintenance of the education environment: meeting the needs of the individual in communication and development, the development of adaptive abilities of students, prevention of delactovine, the development of psychological culture of teachers, the development of social and emotional intelligence of teachers and students, formation of skills of effective communication subjects of educational process, development of skills of intercultural communication etc.


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