| Introduction: Universities as learning environments should provide necessary facilities for positive and
constructive changes in students' professional attitude to make continuous learning possible through
encouraging and creating interest. Academic achievement and related factors are among the research
priorities in education and are an issue with which education managers are concerned in universities. This
study aimed to examine the factors affecting learning in theoretical and practical oral pathology courses
among dental students.
Method: This descriptive study was done with 115 students in their final semesters of dental school at Tabriz
University of Medical Sciences. In this study, a valid and reliable questionnaire created by the researchers
that contained demographic characteristics and factors influencing learning in pathology courses was fielded
to students. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.
Results: According to students, the environmental and external factors that had the greatest impact on
learning in theoretical and practical pathology were the instructor’s interest in teaching and the instructor’s
teaching ability, respectively. In addition, of the examined internal factors affecting learning in theoretical
and practical pathology courses, students believed the factors having the greatest impact on learning were
students’ motivation in learning the course material and their interest in the pathology course, respectively.
Conclusion: Based on the students' perspective, since the instructors’ interest and ability in teaching are
known to be two factors with major impacts on learning oral pathology, educational courses and new training
methods could be offered to instructors for teaching and increasing the quality of their teaching. In addition,
this would be increasing the motivation of students to learn the course material. |