rate of knowledge retention in basic sciences courses among dentistry students

ABSTRACT

Acquiring and recalling knowledge can be considered as the starting point of learning; so increasing the acquisition of knowledge and information recall is one the most important goals of education. To determine the students' information recall in the basic courses of histology, immunology, physiology, biochemistry, head and neck anatomy, and microbiology in dentistry school. In this descriptive survey, 60 students who had passed their basis courses were studied. The tests were held five semesters following the basic courses, and were like those they had passed previously. The results revealed that information recall was the highest for the physiology course [z=0.72], while it was the lowest for anatomy [z=0.07]. For the histology course, the lowest mean score was achieved by the students entered in the year 1997, and the highest by those entered in 1999. The relationship between the entry year of the students and their information recall is statistically significant [p<0.05]. The results showed that the teaching basic science courses such as physiology, anatomy, immunology, microbiology, and biochemistry should accompany new strategies in teaching and learning. One of these is the inclusion by the teachers of retrieval cues in any course so as to facilitate learning