Dental students’ perceptions of Learning Environment.

Objective: To identify dental students’ perceptions of the learning environment (LE) at the Faculty of Dentistry, Naresuan University in the academic year 2009. Methods: Measure of pre-clinical dental students’ LE was systematically developed. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the LE questionnaires. All pre-clinical dental students at Naresuan University, Thailand, in the academic year 2009 were invited to participate. Result: The LE questionnaire consisting of 43 items (9 dimensions) was developed with good validity and reliability. Cronbach’s coefficient alpha ranged from 0.70-0.91. A total 215 pre-clinical dental students completed the questionnaire (96% response rate). The overall mean score was 57.4 (out of a maximum of 90) indicating relative satisfaction with the perceived environment. Of those 9 dimensions; “Health and stress” was ranked the lowest which was identified as an issue which needs changing. Conclusion: Learning Environment for pre-clinical phase of dental education can be reliably measured. “Health and stress” was probably the dimension need to be improved by responsible dental educators.

Academic misconduct among medical students.

Objectives: To explore attitudes and behaviour in medical students to scenarios involving academic misconduct and to determine the association between attitudes and behaviour. Methods: In August 2008, a cross-sectional survey using an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University. All first year medical students were subjects. Completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Results: Of the 291 medical students, 247 (84.9%) completed the questionnaire. The majority of medical students felt that most scenarios were wrong but admitted to engaging in at least one of the scenarios. In all, 139 (56.7%) students responded that cheating should be reported. Only 22 (9.1%) of the students stated that they had or would consider cheating or had witnessed such events. Fourteen out of 22 items showed significant association between attitudes and behaviours. No scenario demonstrated a negative relationship between attitudes and behaviour. Conclusion: The proportion of first year medical students engaging in academic misconduct was high, although they considered it wrong. There were associations between students’ attitudes and behaviour in most of the scenarios.