Perspectives of teachers and students towards the implementation of a new curriculum in school of dentistry in Kerman, Iran, in 2017

BACKGROUND an‎d AIM: The aim of this study is to investigate the views of teachers and students about the new educational curriculum to determine its strengths and weaknesses. METHODS: This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in 2015 and data collection was performed from dental students entering the university in the academic year 2010-2012 as well as 35 teachers through the use of a questionnaire in the field. The questionnaire items included various areas of the educational curriculum. T-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Tukey test were used for analysis (P ≤ 0.050). RESULTS: Based on the 98 questionnaires filled, the minimum and maximum age of the subjects were respectively 20 and 34 years old, with the mean age of 22.98 ± 2.02 years old. In addition, 53 (54%) and 45 (46%) of them were males and females, respectively. The mean attitude was respectively 64.30 ± 13.66 and 58.84 ± 11.12 in males and females. A significant relationship was observed between the attitudes toward educational curriculum and gender. Moreover, the results of correlation analysis showed more positive attitude towards educational curriculum with increasing age (P ≤ 0.034). Post-hoc test scores showed a significant difference between the viewpoints of students entering the university in 2010 and 2011 (P ≤ 0.001), as well as 2011 and 2012 (senior year students compared to junior ones, P ≤ 0.003), but no significant difference was observed between students’ viewpoint entering in 2010 and 2012 (P ≤ 0.145). The results indicated no significant relationship between the viewpoint of teachers and age. These results showed only a significant relationship regarding teaching experiences and viewpoint toward educational curriculum. CONCLUSION: This study showed no positive views of the teachers and students about theoretical and practical training in the new curriculum, which may be mainly due to the lack of attention to the educational needs of students as well as their practical usage. Furthermore, by increasing teaching experiences of the teachers followed by increasing their clinical experiences, their satisfaction reduced.