Status of the Textbooks Used by the Dentistry Students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Iran (2018)

Background: The inappropriate use of pamphlets rather than textbooks is an educational problem faced by most students. Note-taking and reading pamphlets rather than reading textbooks regardless of defects and shortcomings with their own structure cannot cover the required materials for students. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the status of the textbooks used by the dentistry students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (KUMS), Iran. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on the students of the dentistry school of KUMS. In total, 148 students were selected via random sampling. Data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 18. Results: In total, 67.6% of the students used the content presented by professors in the class, and only 2% used the original English textbooks of dentistry. The analysis of the priorities of the type of resource indicated that the highest frequency belonged to the use of printed pamphlets (55.4%), and the lowest frequency belonged to the use of printed versions and electronic audio files (0.7%). Additionally, evaluation of access to resources showed the maximum frequency of a group pamphlet to be 35.8%, while the lowest frequency belonged to the pamphlet prepared by others (2.7%). Conclusions: According to the results, the students showed great interest in note-taking and reading pamphlets rather than reading textbooks. The insufficient fluency of students in English, high costs of reference books, and a large amount of resources made the students more likely to use pamphlets.