Dental students persepctive towards a learning environment and in determining the learning barriers

Background: Dental education is relatively complex, demanding and a unique pedagogical procedure. The purpose of this study was to determine dental student's perception of the learning environment and to determine the learning barriers among dental students in a private college located in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. Materials and Methods: The source of the data includes 306 dental under-graduate students, from academic years 1-4. There are divided into two groups i.e. 159 pre-clinical students and 147 clinical students. They were posed with a validated structured questionnaire, which includes 28 closed ended questions along with questions on 3 different domains i.e. administrative, academic and environmental learning barriers. Results: The overall response rate is 100%. At the administrative level, maximum number of students identified that there was poor academic guidance for the students during courses registration given and there are inadequate extra-curricular activities for the students such as conferences, workshops and seminars. At academic level, 20.6% dental students proposed that questions in the exam are depending on memorising rather than understanding and analysing. 12.2% of the clinical students stated that there was lack of appropriate teaching strategies of the lecturers which are acting as learning barriers. As environmental factors, most of the students agree that inadequate number of computers and the unavailability of internet connection, unavailability of entertainment facilities that motivate the learning process and that the laboratories aren't equipped in terms of space and equipment's for training which would affect the learning process. Conclusion: This study has emphasized on the factors which requires improvement with respect to student's perspective. These learning barriers are to be noted by the educational institutions and the required modifications are done in the infrastructure as well as in the curriculum proposed to the students. Better dental education will instill positive reinforcement, social well-being and a better professional and personality development in the dental students which would guide them into their future