Perception of educational environment: Does it impact academic performance of medical students?

OBJECTIVE: To compare environmental perception as measured by the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure of students with high and low academic performance.

METHODS: This cross-sectional analytical study was carried out at the Gujranwala Medical College, Gujranwala, Pakistan, and comprised medical students. Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure questionnaire with 50 items was used to determine students' perception of the institutional environment. Academic performance was based on mean percentage of marks obtained in all professional examinations. High achievers with 70% or more marks were compared with low achievers with <70% marks for Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure scores using unpaired Student's t-test.

RESULTS: Of the 180 students, 153(85%) were included. Of them, 35(22.87%) were boys and 118(77.12%) girls. The overall mean Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure score was 116.13±18.24. As for the subscales, the mean score for 'perceptions of learning' was 27.97±6.0, 25.76±4.6 for 'perceptions of teachers', 18.67±4.05 for 'academic self-perceptions', 27.76±6.03 for perceptions of atmosphere and 15.97±3.0 for social self-perceptions. The mean dream score was 108.51±17.54 among boys and 118.39±17.90 among girls. The mean score for perception of having successful learning strategies was 1.66±0.9and 2.18±0.9 among low and high achievers (p>0.05) and 1.71±0.98 and 2.18±1.1 for ability to memorise all that was needed (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: Environmental perception of the institution was more positive than negative and better performance in examinations was associated with better academic self-perception and social self-perception in students.