Assessment of dental student satisfaction with regard to process of thesis educational courses

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Ensuring achievement of research experience by students is one of the most important goals of the thesis-conduction process and evaluation of student satisfaction with this process is one of the most imperative challenges herein. AIMS: The aim of this study is to investigate the satisfaction of dental students passing the thesis educational course from the Isfahan Dental School. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Sixty-two dental students who had graduated in2011, from the Isfahan Dental School, participated in this descriptive cross-sectional study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The postgraduate Research Experience Questionnaire (PREQ) was used for data collection. The questionnaire evaluated student satisfaction in seven domains: Thesis supervision, skill development, intellectual climate, infrastructure, thesis examination, goals and expectations, and overall satisfaction. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The data were analyzed on an SPSS software using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS: The mean score of satisfaction of the participants was 75 +/- 12. On the basis of their scores, satisfaction in 3.2 of them was slow, in 33.9was medium, in 61.3 was good and in 1.6 was high. The highest satisfaction was found to be in thesis supervision and the least was in the intellectual climate domain. There was no significant statistical difference between satisfaction and gender (P = 0.46). CONCLUSIONS: Considering the results, to increase student satisfaction for passing the thesis courses, it is necessary to improve the intellectual climate in dental schools and also increase the research budget for more financial support of students to carry out their projects.