title: Appraisal of the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure in the New Zealand dental educational environment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the reliability and validity of the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) amongst New Zealand students in the first professional year of the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) and Bachelor of Oral Health (BOH) programmes.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2009 and 2010, students' perceptions of the educational environment were evaluated using a modified version of the 50-item DREEM, completed on the first and last day of their first professional year. Individual DREEM items' strengths and weaknesses were identified. The difference or dissonance between students' expectations and actual experience was determined by subtracting the Actual DREEM score (for each item or subscale) from the Expected DREEM score. Effect-size statistics were calculated, and internal consistency was tested using Cronbach's alpha.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 82% of 2009 and 2010 BDS and BOH students in their first professional year completed the Expected and Actual DREEM (N = 176). Both groups identified the 'overemphasis of factual learning' as an Expected and Actual aspect and 'memorising all I need to know' as an Actual aspect of the educational environment. Internal consistency was high for the overall DREEM and the BDS and BOH Expected DREEM (0.89 and 0.88, respectively) and excellent for both the BDS and BOH Actual DREEM (0.92 and 0.90, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Overall, students entering the courses anticipated a number of strengths and weaknesses and those expectations were relatively similar in the different programmes (BDS and BOH). The DREEM showed excellent internal consistency for the overall scores, and that for the subscale scores was generally acceptable. The study confirms the DREEM's utility for the NZ dental education environment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Rehabilitation, Faculty of Dentistry, Sir John Walsh Institute, University of Otago, New Zealand. lyndie.fosterpage@otago.ac.nz
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Foster Page
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: W M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Thomson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003479:Curriculum; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D010465:Perception; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012931:Social Environment; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires