title: Culture and its influences on dental education.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Culture is an important factor influencing how students develop learning and how educators provide support to students. The aim of this paper is to explore a concept of national European cultures, and relationships between culture and educational practice with the intention of helping the dental profession gain a better understanding of effective teaching and learning in dentistry.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Culture represents the collective behaviours, values and beliefs of people in a society. How people react to education is partly explained by culture. Students utilise different culturally based strategies to develop learning. We apply Hofstede's model to explore European cultures and implications for dental education and educational practice. Most Western students possess assimilating learning styles enabling them to learn effectively in student-centred contexts while most Eastern students have accommodating learning styles and are more familiar with teacher-centred learning. Eastern students may need to adapt their approach to learning to better benefit from student-centred learning.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Culture influences students' learning and educational practice. Dental educators should be aware of such influences and provide support that acknowledges students' different cultural backgrounds. Cultural competence is fundamental for effective teaching and learning in dentistry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Dentistry, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chuenjitwongsa
authors.affiliation: Cardiff Unit for Research and Evaluation in Medical and Dental Education (CUREMeDE), Cardiff University School of Social Sciences, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bullock
authors.affiliation: Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education, Wales Deanery, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
authors.forename: R G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Oliver
mesh_terms: D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000379:methods; D007858:Learning
keywords: European cultures; dental education; learning styles