Evaluating the Role of Analogies in Biochemistry Education: Lessons Learned From Pre- and Post-Pandemic Dental Student Perceptions.

Biochemistry forms the foundation for understanding biomolecules and molecular processes crucial to dental and oral biology. However, it is often perceived as a challenging subject for dental students with diverse educational backgrounds. Analogies are a pedagogical tool that helps explain new and abstract concepts in biochemistry. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly disrupted teaching and learning activities, prompting shifts in instructional models. This cross-sectional study evaluates dental students' perceptions of analogies in biochemistry education through surveys conducted at the National University of Singapore. Participants included pre-pandemic (2019) and post-pandemic (2024) dental student cohorts, consisting of 57 and 64 students, respectively. Both cohorts reported overwhelmingly positive responses toward the usefulness of analogies, with average scores of 4.6 ± 0.6 in 2019 and 4.7 ± 0.5 in 2024. Most students indicated that analogies enhanced their visualization of abstract concepts (100% in 2019 and 96.9% in 2024) and improved knowledge retention (82.5% in 2019 and 68.8% in 2024). However, a small proportion of students noted that analogies are taken literally and difficult to differentiate from reality (5.3% in 2019 and 4.7% in 2024). Students generally found analogies associated with unfamiliar topics to be more memorable. These findings suggest that analogies remain a relevant and effective tool in biochemistry education, even amid shifts in educational delivery models.