Development Strategies in Medical Education

Introduction
University is one of the most productive social institutes, which has the task of helping to improve education in society [1]. Teachers are the most essential resources for success in achieving this goal because of their wide and strong influence. Clinical education is of particular importance due to being involved with human lives. In this regard, a positive teacher-student relationship is very important [3]. Every person with knowledge cannot be considered a teacher; many people, even skilled people, cannot be successful in teaching [4].
So far, there has not been a precise framework for determining the characteristics of a good college professor. In various studies, students have considered individual characteristics more preferable in evaluating professors [5]. Knowing the characteristics of a good professor is very important; the personality and individual characteristics of professors can greatly affect their teaching abilities. For this reason, there is a need for an evaluation program to determine the degree of success of professors in achieving teaching goals [6]. Evaluation of professors’ performance is one of the important processes in educational activities. It is possible to evaluate the performance of professors in different ways, such as self-evaluation, asking students’ opinions, asking colleagues’ opinions, and using specialized tests [7]. Since students are in direct contact with professors, the best way is to use students’ opinions for evaluation. The present study aims to survey the opinions of dental students in Yazd, Iran about the characteristics of a good dental professor.

Methods
This is a qualitative study using the content analysis method. To find the characteristics of a good professor, the opinions of 18 dental students (in 6-12 semesters) from the Faculty of Dentistry in Yazd were surveyed in 2021 using a semi-structured interview. They were selected using a purposive sampling method. After obtaining their informed consent, the interviews started with the main question about the characteristics of a good professor and continued using exploratory and in-depth questions. Data collection continued until saturation. The interview with each student took place in one session for approximately 15-20 minutes, depending on their tolerance level and interest. The interviews were recorded and transcribed for coding and extracting concepts. Colaizzi’s seven-step method was used for data analysis.

Results
Participants included 9 male and 9 female dental students. Of 18 students, 10 were quota students (no tuition), and the rest were non-quota students (paying tuition). In terms of academic status, 6 students reported their status as good, 8 as moderate, and 6 as poor. After reviewing the contents, 38 codes were extracted. After removing overlapping codes and merging similar codes, 29 codes remained. Finally, the characteristics of a good dental professor were categorized into three main themes: Personal characteristics (with four sub-themes of teaching, manner, personality, and communication), scientific characteristics (with two sub-themes of teaching and manner), and clinical characteristics (with two sub-themes of teaching and manner). According to the perceptions of the students, a “good dental professor” is a teacher who has good personal, scientific, and clinical characteristics together and in interaction with each other.

Conclusion
In the present study, the opinions of dental students about the characteristics of a good dental professor were investigated, and three main characteristics were extracted: personal, scientific, and clinical characteristics. The most important personal characteristics were: speaking well and clearly, being eager to teach, motivating, encouraging, good-mannered, approachable, having moral health, being humble, conscientious, responsible, neat & orderly, polite, and having respect for students. Although the teacher has a central role in dental education, the search in the literature showed that little attention has been paid to the efficiency of the professor in dentistry [11]. A previous study investigated the characteristics of a good dental professor, both as a classroom teacher and as a clinical supervisor. There were differences in characteristics between classroom teachers and clinical supervisors due to the difference in the educational environment [15].
In the present study, no distinction was made between professors as classroom teachers or clinical supervisors because all dental professors in the Faculty of Dentistry in Yazd teach theoretical and practical courses and play the role of teacher and clinical supervisor. Although it cannot be denied, the learning preferences of some dental students may change by changing the learning environment from the classroom to pre-clinical or clinical settings. Dental professors should be aware of these differences to know how to improve teaching for dental students.
Academic progress is due to the positive teacher-student relationship. It has also been reported that the role of the professor in increasing the internal motivation of students is high, and the support of the professor and proper communication increase the academic motivation of students [34]. Therefore, professors are expected to use the results of evaluations for their teaching improvement. Although the results of other studies show that the professors did not have a very positive attitude towards evaluation based on students’ opinions, they used the results of these evaluations to change their teaching and improve their educational quality. Considering the key role of professors in education, it is recommended to consider the characteristics of a good professor in recruiting and empowering university faculty members. It is also recommended to develop continuous training programs to improve the teaching skills of faculty members. Further studies in other universities are also recommended.

Conclusion
According to the opinions of dental students, the characteristics of a good dental professor are categorized into three main groups: Personal characteristics, scientific characteristics, and clinical characteristics. In this regard, a “good dental professor” is a teacher who has good personal, scientific, and clinical characteristics together and in interaction with each other.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
this study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences (IR.SSU.DENTISTRY.REC.1401.106). Informed consent was obtained from the participants and they were assured of the confidentiality of their information.

Funding
This study was extracted from the thesis of  Roua Forootan-Eghlidi and funded by Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences (Grant Number: 13220).

Authors' contributions
Conceptualization: Fatemeh Owlia; Methodology: Zahra Roostaei Zadeh-Shooroki and Roua Forootan-Eghlidi; Writing–Original Draft: Fatemeh Owlia and Roua Forootan-Eghlidi; Writing–Review & Editing, Investigation, Funding Acquisition, Resources and Supervision: All authors.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Vice-Chancellor for Research and Technology of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, for the financial support  and the students participated in this study for their cooperation.


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