Journal of Dental Medicine

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Abdal F, Soltani M, Kazempour M, Haddadi M H, Neshanifard N. Evaluation of the educational environment of Ilam Dental School based on the DSLES questionnaire in 2023. J Dent Med-tums 2026; 39 : 22
URL: http://jdm.tums.ac.ir/article-1-6420-en.html

Background and Aims: The learning environment is defined as anything that happens in a classroom or educational group, faculty or university. Evaluation of dental students’ opinions  about their learning environment, can help those responsible to provide solutions for improving the quality and quantity of clinical education. One of the tools that quantitatively measures the environment and atmosphere governing dental education is DSLES (Dental Student Learning Environment Survey). Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the educational environment of the Ilam School of Dentistry based on the DSLES questionnaire.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive-cross-sectional study was conducted on 114, clinical and pre-clinical students of the Ilam School of Dentistry were enrolled in the study in 2025. Data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 24). Total scores were analyzed using Student's
t-test and the significance level was set at p<0.05.
Results: The results showed that the educational environment of the dental school was in the medium to relatively desirable range in various dimensions, but none of the components reached the excellent level. The highest score was related to the "relationships between students" and the lowest score was related to the "flexibility of the educational program". "Relations between students" was the highest score among the components (p=0.002). Curriculum flexibility had the lowest score among the components (p=0.000). The results of the study indicated statistically significant differences between the preclinical and clinical students' perceptions of the educational environment (p<0.05).
Conclusion: The educational environment of the school of dentistry had a suitable basic structure but needed to be transformed. Focusing on increasing the flexibility of educational programs, strengthening responsiveness to students' needs (especially in the clinical period), and maintaining existing gender equity can lead to improving the overall quality of educational environment.