Dental faculty and student views of didactic and clinical assessment: A qualitative description study

Abstract

Objective: Although assessment is essential to accurately represent student learning, little is currently known about student and faculty perceptions of assessment in dental schools. Our study aimed to explore faculty and student views of didactic and clinical assessments in the School of Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Method: Qualitative description informed the study design. Data were collected through focus groups and analysed inductively using manifest content analysis. Results: Five focus groups were conducted with faculty (n = 34) and three with students (n = 19). Faculty and student views of assessment were related to improvements made (perceived positive changes), improvements needed (perceived limitations) and improvements recommended (recommendations to improve perceived limitations). Faculty and students reported that improvements made (eg adequacy of assessment to students' levels of training) varied across instructors, courses and learning environments. Both faculty and students perceived clinical assessments as less appropriate than didactic assessments. Faculty perceived limitations were mostly related to assessment appropriateness, especially assessment accuracy and comprehensiveness, whilst student perceived limitations included other issues related to appropriateness (eg misalignment with course objectives) as well as issues related to assessment volume, pace and scheduling. Similarly, faculty recommendations focused on enhancing the assessment of clinical competencies, whilst students' recommendations aimed to also improve assessment scheduling, volume and usage (eg for learning purposes). Conclusions: Faculty and student views of assessment complemented one another. Our data show that assessment in dental education is multidimensional, so that multilevel strategies may be needed to improve this component of dental curricula.

Dental educators’ views and knowledge of competencies required within a competency framework

“…Improvement needs that were identified by stakeholders, namely, students and faculty, are of particular value, as they are based on personal and direct experiences of successful, or unsuccessful outcomes, which could be used as a road map for curricular changes. 12 As stakeholders, dental educators in South African dental schools are expected to map the dental graduates' competencies throughout the undergraduate dental curricula, for the accreditation process. In addition to this, the scope of the dental educators, includes teaching, assessment, and clinical supervision of undergraduate dental students, as well as contributing to this accreditation process, with the guidance of, inter alia, deans and committees.…”

“…Many studies on perceptions, including evaluations, of dental education have focused on student views, especially regarding curriculum content, delivery (teaching) and learning. 12 However, the views of dental educators, regarding the competencies of dental graduates, are equally important. In addition, published literature, on the core competencies required upon graduation of dental graduates in South Africa, is non-existent.…”

Students' perceptions of post‐exam feedback in oral radiology—A comparative study from two dental hygienist educational settings

“…This in order to achieve the ultimate goals of assisting as many students as possible in navigating across educational course elements and transitioning into professional practice. [32][33][34] To succeed with this type of post-exam feedback experimentation, we consider it prudent to develop the arrangement towards more active student engagement, aiming to involve a diverse range of students. This is mainly an issue of pedagogical design and planning.…”

“…Given the divided findings from our study, this prompts the need for further explorations in post‐exam feedback to enhance the relevance and accuracy of this measure across a broader spectrum of student motivation and learning proficiencies. This in order to achieve the ultimate goals of assisting as many students as possible in navigating across educational course elements and transitioning into professional practice 32–34 …”

Animal magic or a bone of contention? An exploration of dog ownership and adaptation in people with post-stroke aphasia

“…This was a qualitative descriptive study (Sandelowski, 2000), a methodology commonly associated with nursing and midwifery research (Polit & Beck, 2014), and being increasingly used in other fields of healthcare (e.g. LaGrone et al, 2020;Perez et al, 2020). Qualitative description directly explores the phenomenon of interest from the perspectives of those experiencing it (Bradshaw et al, 2017) and was particularly appropriate for this study which set out to describe the phenomenon of dog ownership and adaptation by people with post stroke aphasia.…”