TY - JOUR T1 - Students’ perception of the learning environment and its relation to their study year and performance in Sudan AU - Ahmed, Y. AU - Taha, M.H. AU - Al-Neel, S. AU - Gaffar, A.M. KW - students’ perception KW - learning environment KW - study year KW - performance KW - sudan KW - PY - 2018/05/24 Y1 - 2018/05/07 VL - 9 N1 - doi: 10.5116/ijme.5af0.1fee DO - 10.5116/ijme.5af0.1fee M3 - doi: 10.5116/ijme.5af0.1fee JO - Int J Med Educ SP - 145 EP - 150 PB - IJME SN - 2042-6372 UR - http://www.ijme.net/archive/9/students-perception-of-the-learning-environment/ L1 - http://www.ijme.net/archive/9/students-perception-of-the-learning-environment.pdf N2 - Objectives: To evaluate students’ perceptions of the learning environment and to assess any differences in perception related to students’ performance and their year of study. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was performed of 638 students from the second, sixth and tenth semesters at the Faculty of Medicine at Gezira University, Sudan. This study employed the Arabic-translated Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure. The main predictor variables were the study year and academic performance. Descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance with a post hoc Tukey-Kramer multiple comparisons test were used for data analysis. Results: The overall score for this study was 122/200 (SD=16.6), indicating a positive perception of the learning environment. The overall mean score was 109.94/200 (SD=21.2) for Semester 2 students, 122.9/200 (SD=20.29) for Semester 6 students, and 116.53 (SD=20.12) for Semester 10 students, reflecting a significant difference in students’ perceptions in different years of study (F = 3.21, p=0.04). There was also a significant difference between the mean overall scores with respect to academic performance. High-achieving students’ mean DREEM score was 126 (SD=24.4); while low-achieving students’ mean DREEM score was 102 (SD=26.25) (F = 3.53, p=0.029). Conclusions: High achievers’ perceptions of the learning environment are significantly better than those of low achievers. A significant difference was observed between students in different years of study. The differences in students’ academic performance should be further investigated, targeting specific domains. A large-scale study is required to differentiate between the weakness and the strength of each academic level. ER -