Does Reflective Practice Enhance Clinical Competency in Medical Imaging Undergraduates?

Dental students' reflective habits: is there a relation with their academic achievements?

“…Reflection and Critical Reflection scores increased more than those from Habitual Action and Understanding as students progressed through the programme ( Table 3). As previously reported (53,54), this might indicate that theory and concept integration into students' and trainees' practice increases as they climb the programme ladder. It is acknowledged that dental students are required to develop reflective thinking and problemsolving skills as they move from well-defined problems in the classroom environment to the more uncertain and ill-defined real-life situations when they start clinical patient care (36).…”

“…It is acknowledged that dental students are required to develop reflective thinking and problemsolving skills as they move from well-defined problems in the classroom environment to the more uncertain and ill-defined real-life situations when they start clinical patient care (36). The undergraduate dental students' mean scores for Understanding, Reflection and Critical Reflection were higher, whilst those for Habitual Action were lower than those reported for undergraduate students in occupational therapy, physiotherapy, radiography and nursing (40), health science students (51), year 3 and year 4 medical students (54), and those studying English language teaching (56). Indeed, they looked more comparable with those reported for postgraduate nursing trainees (40), end-of-year 3 in practice nursing students (50), and year 3 and year 5 medical students in a Problem Based Learning (PBL) curriculum (53).…”

“…Similarly, the mean scale scores for all cohorts showed the same pattern as prior reports using the same RQ. The higher Understanding and Reflection mean scores indicate that students and trainees employed these levels of thinking more than Habitual Action and Critical Reflection (40,50,54). Indeed, Ashley et al (55) reported that BDS Year 4 students placed a 'great deal of emphasis on practical applications of their knowledge'.…”

Effect of reflective thinking on academic performance among undergraduate dental students

“…It is acknowledged that dental students are required to develop reflective thinking and problem-solving skills as they move from well-defined problems in the classroom environment to the more uncertain and ill-defined real-life situations when they start clinical patient care. [21] However, these results were in contrast to the study by Chelliah and Arumugam[18] among Malaysian medical imaging undergraduates where there was no significant difference in the level of reflection based on the year of study.…”

“…This suggests that students are in a learning phase, identifying their skills and strengths, and rectifying mistakes which helps them develop actions for change and future success. Likewise, among dental students[17] enrolled at King's College London Dental Institute and medical imaging undergraduates[18] in University of Kebangsaan, Malaysia, the individuals agreed with most of the items of RQ.…”