Abstract
Background: Evaluation is an important process in teaching and learning strategies, which includes description, collection, and analysis of available tools for their effective outcome. Hence, it is important to understand and adopt the most preferred teaching and learning educational tool to deliver the knowledge efficiently and clearly to the target audience.

Aims and Objectives: This study aims to collect and describe the feedback on teaching and learning educational tool preferences among the 1st year dental students in physiology.

Materials and Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was done at a Southern single teaching tertiary care dental institution using prevalidated structured questionnaire on the 1st year dental students. The study proposal was approved by the Institutional Review Board and national as well as international guidelines on bioethics were followed throughout the study period. A total of 57 completed and returned questionnaire forms were taken for final data analysis and represented in descriptive statistics.

Results: It was revealed that majority of study participants opined as “teaching and learning physiology by powerpoint slide and blackboard presentation” were the very good tools on five-point Likert scale (15.79%). It was also seen that majority of study participants would like to learn physiology through weekly class tests in the form of multiple choice questions (MCQs) (50.88%), case study (56.14%), small group discussions (36.84%), and in more relevance to both clinical and experimental aspects (71.93%). The study also showed that the most interesting topic in physiology was gastrointestinal system and most difficult topic to understand was cardiovascular system.

Conclusion: The 1st year dental students prefer to learn physiology by powerpoint and blackboard presentations, case study, and small group discussions, weekly class tests in MCQs format and more relevance to clinical as well as experimental aspects, as the most effective teaching and learning educational tools.

Key words: Dental; Educational and Learning Tools; 1st Year; Teaching and Learning