Evaluation of educational environment at different academic levels using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment...

The role of the educational environment in learning and performance of students is undeniable, particularly in clinical fields. This study aimed to assess the perception of dental students at the basic science, preclinical, and clinical levels toward the educational environment of Guilan Dental School by using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM).

This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1^st-year-6^th-year dental students in the 2025 year. Data were collected using the standard DREEM, with 50 close-ended questions with 5-point Likert-scale answer choices. Perception of students was evaluated in five domains: student perception of learning (SPL), student perception of teacher (SPT), student academic self-perception (SASP), student perception of the atmosphere (SPA), and student social self-perception (SSSP). Data were analyzed at 0.05 level of significance.

Totally, 168 dental students participated in this study, out of which 92.9% were aged 18-25 years and 57.1% were males. The mean educational environment quality score was 101.77 ± 17.43. "Moving in the right direction" in the SPT domain had the highest frequency. The perceived quality of educational environment and its domains had no significant association with age or gender of students (P < 0.05). The mean score of the SASP domain significantly decreased with an increase in academic level of students (r = -0.18, P < 0.05).

Dental students rated some domains of their educational environment positively; however, areas such as SSSP require improvement to align with the supportive academic environments emphasized in health education policies.