Students' perceptions regarding educational environment in an Indian dental  school.
BACKGROUND
As one of India's premier dental schools, the Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, has striven to be in the forefront of dental education ever since its inception in 1965. But one of our main drawbacks has been the lack of students' perceptions about the educational atmosphere in our institution.


OBJECTIVE
(1) To understand the students' perceptions of the educational environment. (2) To compare the results with those of other dental/medical schools.


METHODS
Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) was used to gather information about the environment in our institution. The same was administered to first year and final year students (63 each).


RESULTS
The main area of convergence of both groups was that the social atmosphere was not very congenial. But the thought-provoking finding was that both groups felt that the teachers were authoritarian.


CONCLUSIONS
The lack of congenial atmosphere in our institution seems to be due to the attitude of the course organizers.A need for makeover in attitudes and approach on the part of the teachers to make the learning experience more pleasant for the students was made obvious by this study.
Thomas
Betsy Sara
BS
Department of Periodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal, India. betsythomas99@hotmail.com
Abraham
Reem Rachel
RR
Alexander
Mohan
M
Ramnarayan
K
K
D003258:Consumer Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D012575:Schools, Dental; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires