title: Academic environment in a newly established dental school with an enquiry-based curriculum: perceptions of students from the inaugural cohorts.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Established in 2007, Peninsula Dental School offers a highly innovative, enquiry-based, student-led, patient-centred curriculum. It is one of the first dental schools in UK to be based exclusively in a primary care setting. This study was carried out to evaluate the academic environment at Peninsula Dental School and to identify differences between expectations of new entrants and perceptions of senior cohorts.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional survey utilising an online questionnaire based on Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM). The subjects were 234 dental students from all years in this enquiry-based Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response rate to the questionnaire was 56.42% with an equal gender distribution of the participants. The overall mean DREEM score of the four cohorts was 143.58 (SD ± 20.84), and the mean score for individual items was 2.87 (SD ± 0.41). The reliability of the DREEM data as a whole was strong (α = 0.93). The difference in questionnaire means for the new entrants and the senior cohorts was not significant (P > 0.05). The ANOVA results showed that there were no significant effects of age, gender or ethnicity on the mean DREEM scores. The MANOVA results showed a significant effect of ethnicity with regard to perceptions of teachers and atmosphere.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  An enquiry-based, student-centred curriculum at the Peninsula Dental School provides a positive academic environment for the students.
authors.affiliation: Peninsula Dental School, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK. kamran.ali@pds.ac.uk
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McHarg
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kay
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moles
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tredwin
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Coombes
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Heffernan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception; D012575:Schools, Dental / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012931:Social Environment; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom