The educational environment of the undergraduate medical curriculum at Kuwait University

Abstract

BackgroundEducational environment of an institution affects the quality of learning. We aim to assess the educational environment of the undergraduate curriculum of Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University (FOMKU).MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out during April 2014. The validated Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was e-mailed to 607 students. Mean scores of the main domains of the questionnaire, and for each item, were calculated, and their association with the students’ background information was measured using Student’s t-test (P-value of ≤0.05 was considered as the cut-off level of significance).ResultsOf 607 students, 117 (19.3%) completed the questionnaire. The total mean score for DREEM was 108.7/200 (54.3%). The mean score for students’ perception of teaching, perception of teachers, academic self-perception, perception of atmosphere, and social self-perception were 25.2/48 (52.5%), 24.6/44 (55.9%), 18.4/32 (57.5%), 26.2/48 (54.5%), and 14.3/28 (51.0%), respectively. The highest mean score for an item of DREEM questionnaire was for “my accommodation is pleasant” (3.48±0.75), while the lowest was for “there is a good support system for students who get stressed” (0.88±0.86). The total mean score was not significantly different between the two phases of the curriculum, or among males and females; however, few significant differences among the main domains and items were noted.ConclusionBased on the learners’ perspectives, the educational environment of FOMKU, was suboptimal. Medical educators in Kuwait should improve this environment in order to advance the quality of the delivered curriculum.

The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure: A prospective comparative study of undergraduate medical students’ and interns’ perceptions in Oman

“…Overall total DREEM scores have been reported to range from 45.0-72.5%. 11,12 The overall total DREEM score observed in the present study was high and comparable with findings from established international medical schools in the UK, South Africa and Ireland. 1,12,13 However, mean scores reported from medical schools at the University of East Anglia and University of Birmingham in the UK and the University of Lund in Sweden were higher.…”

“…According to standard interpretations of DREEM subscale scores, the mean score for the perceptions of learning subscale in the current study was deemed Other studies from the Middle Eastern region have addressed students' perceptions of the educational environment at various medical colleges [ Table 4]. 11,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] In general, the scores of medical schools in previous studies from 2004-2010 were much lower compared to those reported from more recent studies. 11,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] This observation suggests that significant improvements have been made to the learning environments of medical schools in the region.…”

“…Agreement or disagreement with individual items was calculated by combining responses in the agree and strongly agree categories and the disagree and strongly disagree categories, respectively. 11 The total scores, subscale scores and individual item scores were expressed as means ± standard deviation. The mean scores of undergraduate students and interns were compared using a Student's t-test.…”

“…Literature review of recent studies using the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure tool at institutions in the Middle East11,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] …”

A Five Year Longitudinal Study of the Educational Environment in a Newly Integrated Medical Curriculum

“…The mean overall score over all five years (130/200) was higher than that reported by most medical schools in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, with studies from Saudi Arabia reporting scores of 107/200, 102/200, 100/200, 97/200 and 90/200; a Yemeni study reported a score of 100/200 and a study from Kuwait reported scores of 109/200 and 106/200 3,7,9,19–22. Although schools in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have similar student-centred curricula , the current EE was observed to be more conducive to learning as reflected by the higher overall score 7,20,22.…”