ABSTRACT

Aims:

The purpose of this educational study was to evaluate Turkish dental students´ attitudes about educational strategies, school duration, specialty and technology.

Methods:

A survey instrument with ten statements were used with a five-point Likert scale. A total of 187 dental students from a public university in Turkey were surveyed. The students were divided into five different groups according to their educational levels. The Kruskal Wallis test was performed to compare the responses among the groups.

Results:

There was a significant difference among the groups in one of ten statements (P<0.05). Participants of the five groups agreed, on average, with each other in their responses to nine of the ten statements (P>0.05). All groups approved the statements about technology integration, while there were mixed opinions about electronic textbooks. Moreover, each group had positive views about the role of visual elements, social activities and congress or symposiums in dental school education. Dental students stated that faculty lectures were adequate and dental specialty education was required; however, the dental students stated that education duration should not be more than five years.

Conclusions:

Dental school administrators should pay attention to the perspectives of dental students when making decisions about dental school education.