title: [Longitudinal perception of the educational environment in two medical schools with traditional curricula in Chile and Spain].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To establish an educational environment that ensures the quality of the teaching-learning process is a challenge for any educational institution. The questionnaire DREEM (Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure) is used to identify strengths and weaknesses of an educational environment and to compare different medical schools.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the changes in the perception of educational environment by students of the Schools of Medicine of the University of Zaragoza, UZar (Spain) and the University of Chile, UCh (Chile) at two points in their curricula.
  
  
  METHODS
  DREEM questionnaire was answered by 90 students from the UZar and 87 students of the UCh, when they were in the first year (2009) and in the fourth year of their career (2012).
  
  
  RESULTS
  At both universities the overall mean scores of DREAM were significantly higher in students in their first year than those obtained in the fourth year (137.5/118.3 for UZar and 128.6/118.8 for UCh). Items with worse perception in the fourth year were observed in subscales Learning Perception and Atmosphere Perception. Items with good evaluation (≥ 3.0) were the subscales Perception of teachers, academic self-perception, perception of Environment and Social Self-perception.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The perception of Chilean and Spanish students about their educational environments indicates that the stage of their medical training is more important than the geographical context or educational institution.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, gdiaz@med.uchile.cl.
authors.forename: Gabriela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Díaz-Véliz
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile, gdiaz@med.uchile.cl.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mora G
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Fisiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, España.
authors.forename: Jesús F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Escanero
mesh_terms: D002677:Chile; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D010465:Perception; D012577:Schools, Medical; D012931:Social Environment; D013030:Spain; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult