Using Delphi Technique in a Consensual Curriculum for Periodontics

Abstract

Periodontics has experienced several important conceptual changes in the last few decades. As such, it is important to have a periodontics curriculum built upon the expertise of specialists in that discipline and reflecting those changes. The main goal of this study was to attain a consensus, through the use of the Delphi technique, on the topics that should be included in a periodontics curriculum for undergraduate dental students. A sample of periodontics lecturers from nine dental schools in two Brazilian cities was used, and a Delphi technique approach was followed to investigate sample member perceptions on the subject. Participants received four postal mail questionnaires asking them to rate and rerate eighty-nine topics for possible inclusion in the curriculum. A descriptive analysis was conducted, and topic frequencies were calculated. Topics rated as highly important for inclusion were the following: health, ailment, prevention, etiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and treatment. The Delphi technique approach proved successful in involving periodontics lecturers in the design of a periodontics curriculum for undergraduate dental students.

Entrustable Professional Activities in Family Medicine

“…16 It has been used by other groups and disciplines to develop curricula, competencies, and objectives. [17][18][19] A limitation of our approach to defining patient care EPAs is that we began with internal testing within a single residency program. Therefore, despite drawing on previously published lists, our list was influenced by the setting, clinical practice, faculty, and philosophy of our program.…”

A Delphi approach to define learning outcomes and assessment

“…In contrast to another study on the development of a curriculum for an ‘Advance General Dentistry’ training programme , the Delphi panel used in the present study was heterogeneous and included students' view. A guiding framework was not present in previous studies that used a Delphi process to facilitate changes in the curriculum in dentistry. The final list of outcomes for the orthodontic postgraduate students in Cardiff is organised in accordance with the three‐circle model to classify learning outcomes by Harden et al.…”

“…Previous studies using a Delphi approach have noted some disadvantages : the absence of any guiding framework in changing the curriculum (vertical alignment); the absence of communication between different groups (students, teachers, course organisers, etc.) that should be involved in changing the curriculum (horizontal alignment); the absence of a key component of the curriculum, such as assessment. …”

Defining curricular priorities for student-as-teacher programs: A National Delphi Study

“…Given the Delphi method's flexible format and prior use to develop healthcare curricula (Turner and Weiner 2002;Walley and Webb 1997;Fried and Leao 2007;Penciner et al 2011;Waggoner et al 2016), we identified the Delphi method as a suitable way to survey a nationally representative cohort of medical educators about SaT curricular priorities. To our knowledge, this is the first national Delphi study carried out for SaT or RaT programs.…”