Favorable Strategies for oral biology learning from dental students’ perception

Oral biology is an important tool in clinical dental training. Therefore, a good understanding of oral biology is crucial for improving the outcomes of dental education. This study aims to assess dental students’ perceptions of the relevance of oral biology in dentistry and investigate their attitudes toward learning and study approaches. We also investigated the acceptance of each teaching method and study resources.

Materials and methods

A Likert scale-based online questionnaire was administered to undergraduate dental students, dental interns and to a group of postgraduate dental students at the College of Dentistry, Umm AlQura university in the end of the academic year.

Results and conclusion:

The results indicated that most dental students consider oral biology relevant to dental education and clinical practice. Academic lectures appear to be the most favorable learning method for dental students, followed by practical sessions. Regarding preferred study resources, handouts appeared to be the most preferred, followed by online resources. Furthermore, it appears that students’ preferences for teaching methods and study resources often vary according to their academic level; overall, it appears that students depend more on passive learning than active learning.