A Model for Critical Thinking Measurement of Dental Student Performance

Critical thinking and problem-solving are two of the most frequently desired goals for dental student learning, but greater understanding is needed of how students' critical thinking skills develop from the beginning to the end of the curriculum. The aim of this study was to use students' performance on critical thinking assessments at five time points from the first to the fourth years to longitudinally assess their critical thinking development across the curriculum. In 2014-16, the performance of students in two successive graduating classes at one U.S. dental school was collected from five assignments designed to, among other things, assess critical thinking. Those assignments ranged from a case study in the Cariology I course in fall of the first year to an OSCE completed before graduation. Students were divided into four quartiles from lowest- to highest-achieving based on the first (baseline) assessment, and those quartiles were tracked to determine each student's progress over the four years. The results showed that, for both cohorts, students who ranked in the top quartile remained in the top of the class for all subsequent assessments. Also in both cohorts, the students who had the lowest scores on the initial assessment of critical thinking skills showed statistically significant improvements over time, increasing their scores by 9.4% (cohort 1, p<0.001) and 4.6% (cohort 2, p=0.003) in each consecutive assessment. These results suggest that implementing critical thinking assessments early in the curriculum can assist in predicting students' future performance on critical thinking assessments. Furthermore, a dental curriculum intentionally designed to promote critical thinking capacities can help students improve these skills over time, whatever their level at the beginning.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 47%

Longitudinal Assessment of Critical Thinking Skills Across a Dental Curriculum

Everett

Anderson

Wright

et al. 2018

“…While critical thinking skills have been defined, no unifying skill set has yet been developed. Examples of critical thinking skill sets have been reported for treatment planning, search and critique of literature, evidence‐based dentistry, reflections, caries risk assessment, behavior management, geriatric risk assessment, and technology decision making 26 – 30 …”

Section: Dental Education Outcomes Needed To Address Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dental Education Required for the Changing Health Care Environment

Fontana

González-Cabezas

Peralta

et al. 2017

Self Cite

To be able to meet the demands for care in 2040, dental graduates will need to address challenges resulting from the rapidly changing health care environment with knowledge and sets of skills to build on current standards and adapt to the future. The purposes of this article are to 1) analyze key challenges likely to evolve considerably between now and 2040 that will impact dental education and practice and 2) propose several sets of skills and educational outcomes necessary to address these challenges. The challenges discussed include changes in prevalence of oral diseases, dental practice patterns, materials and technologies, integrated medical-dental care, role of electronic health records, cultural competence, integrated curricula, interprofessional education, specialty-general balance, and web/cloud-based collaborations. To meet these challenges, the dental graduate will need skills such as core knowledge in basic and clinical dentistry, technical proficiency, critical thinking skills for lifelong learning, ethical and professional values, ability to manage a practice, social responsibility, and ability to function in a collegial intra- and interprofessional setting. Beyond the skills of the individual dentist will be the need for leadership in academia and the practice community. Academic and professional leaders will need to engage key constituencies to develop strategic directions and agendas with all parties pointed toward high standards for individual patients and the public at large. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21 Century."

“…Critical thinking skillsets have been developed and reported for treatment planning, literature search, and critique, caries risk assessment, technology decision-making, EBD, geriatric risk assessment, IPP, reflections/situation analysis, behavior management, case presentation. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] These peer-reviewed skillsets can aid in showing milestones so far established for explicit learning outcomes in critical thinking and can give insights to extend the boundaries to include conceptualizing the patient interaction. Emulation models in progress will demonstrate critical thinking skillsets deriving probing questions from the expert in social work and ethics.…”

Section: Introduction and Background On Models For Critical Thinking mentioning

confidence: 99%

Two critical thinking models—probing questions and conceptualization—adding 4 skillsets to the teacher's armamentarium

Johnsen

Flick

Butali

et al. 2020

Self Cite

Critical thinking is ubiquitous in patient care. One track for critical thinking develops skillsets emulating the thought process of the master clinician using probing questions and has been offered in treatment planning, literature search, and critique, risk assessment in caries and geriatrics, technology decision‐making, EBD, and IPP. This paper offers 2 additional critical thinking skillsets following this emulation model in social work and ethics. Conceptualization, another form of critical thinking, is also ubiquitous in health care, yet almost no literature exists to guide learning and assess performance on conceptualization. This paper introduces for discussion 2 examples of conceptualization—“How and how much does this situation differ from the ideal?” and “How does the student/practitioner conceptualize the outcome prior to the imminent procedure?” —used continually by the practitioner in patient care situations. The result is 4 additional critical thinking skillsets at different stages of development in the armamentarium for the teacher.