The Graduating European Dentist: Contemporaneous Methods of Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Dental Undergraduate Education

Abstract

It is often the case that good teachers just “intuitively” know how to teach. Whilst that may be true, there is now a greater need to understand the various processes that underpin both the ways in which a curriculum is delivered, and the way in which the students engage with learning; curricula need to be designed to meet the changing needs of our new graduates, providing new, and robust learning opportunities, and be communicated effectively to both staff and students. The aim of this document is to draw together robust and contemporaneous methods of teaching, learning and assessment that help to overcome some of the more traditional barriers within dental undergraduate programmes. The methods have been chosen to map specifically to The Graduating European Dentist, and should be considered in parallel with the benchmarking process that educators and institutions employ locally.

Student experiences of two small group learning‐teaching formats: Seminar and fishbowl

“…According to the ADEE profile of undergraduate dental education in Europe, possible other useful formats for clinical training include role-playing, situated learning, and storytelling, amongst others. 32 In addition, potential bias may have been introduced in the study design. The two teaching methods being compared were applied to all students in subsequent semesters, with the seminar method first and fishbowl second.…”

A discussion of qualification frameworks, work‐readiness and dental education in Australia

“…For example, reflective practice is explicitly linked to continuing personal and professional development as one of the six TLOs in the Harmonising Project , but in the ADC document, it only appears as an approach to “clinical reasoning and judgement” in a competency (3.1) of the critical thinking domain. Under the new approach to dental education advocated by ADEE, however, it is recommended that “critical reflection should be embedded throughout the undergraduate curriculum,” thereby preparing graduates for practice and lifelong learning …”

“…Although there is considerable ambiguity and overlapping of semantic/lexical fields in the literature surrounding TCs, TLOs and professional attributes and capabilities, there is nevertheless great merit in identifying those concepts and skills which dental students find troublesome or take variable amounts of time and effort to master. ADEE has recognised the importance of identifying and exploring TCs and integrating them within each stage of a dental curriculum, but considerable input is required from experienced academic staff as well as collaborative educational networks, as this area of pedagogy is still in its infancy. Nevertheless, an approach has been proposed to integrate scaffolded reflective practice assessment tasks across the dental curriculum to facilitate the attainment of TLOs in Australian dental education and help prepare graduates for clinical practice.…”

“…Under the new approach to dental education advocated by ADEE, however, it is recommended that "critical reflection should be embedded throughout the undergraduate curriculum," thereby preparing graduates for practice and lifelong learning. 29 The elaboration of reflective practice as a key healthcare practitioner competency is also articulated in the core competencies practices to manage threshold concepts (TCs), those areas of knowledge and practice within a discipline that most students experience as difficult or troublesome, but their attainment is transformative for students and facilitates the integration of discipline knowledge. 31 Although there is considerable ambiguity and overlapping of semantic/lexical fields in the literature surrounding TCs, TLOs and professional attributes and capabilities, there is nevertheless great merit in identifying those concepts and skills which dental students find troublesome or take variable amounts of time and effort to master.…”

Step‐by‐step teaching method improves the learner achievement in dental skill training

“…6 To facilitate the transmission of knowledge and skills, teachers should apply appropriate teaching methods that produce best outcomes, so traditional teaching methods in dentistry, lecture and practice, are being augmented with innovative teaching methods. 7 For prosthodontics, the previous curriculum of crown preparation comprised the teacher's theoretical lecture and/or practical demonstration followed by the learner's skill practice in artificial teeth. However, we often observed some limitations within this teaching method.…”