Curriculum change in dental education, 2003-09.
(41/62)
This 2009 study of dental school curricula follows a similar one conducted in 2002-03. Through a web-based survey, the authors gathered information from dental schools about 1) past trends in curricular change over seven years; 2) current changes under way in dental school curricula; 3) significant challenges to curricular innovation; and 4) projected future trends in curricular change and innovation. Fifty-five schools (fifty U.S. and five Canadian) responded to the survey for a response rate of 86 percent. In addition to background information, the survey requested information in four broad areas: curriculum format, curriculum assessment, curriculum innovation, and resources needed for curriculum enhancement. Forty-nine percent of the respondents defined their curriculum format as primarily organized by disciplines. Half of the respondents reported the use of problem-based and case-reinforced learning for a section or specific component of some courses. In a significant change from the 2002-03 study, a high proportion (91 percent) of the responding schools require community-based patient care by all students, with just over half requiring five or more weeks of such experience. Competency-based education to prepare an entry-level general dentist seems well established as the norm in responding dental schools. Forty-three percent or less of the responding schools indicated that their students participate with other health professions education programs for various portions of their educational experience. Since the 2002-03 survey, dental schools have been active in conducting comprehensive curriculum reviews; 65 percent indicated that their most recent comprehensive curriculum review is currently under way or was conducted within the past two years. Respondents indicated that the primary reasons for the configuration of the current curriculum were "perceived success" (it works), "compatibility with faculty preferences," "faculty comfort," and "capacity/feasibility." Key catalysts for curricular change were "findings of a curriculum review we conducted ourselves," students' feedback about curriculum, and administration and faculty dissatisfaction. There was an increase in the percentage of schools with interdisciplinary courses, especially in the basic sciences since 2002-03, but no change in the use of problem-based and case-reinforced learning in dental curricula. Respondents reported that priorities for future curriculum modification included creating interdisciplinary curricula that are organized around themes, blending the basic and clinical sciences, provision of some elements of core curricula in an online format, developing new techniques for assessing competency, and increasing collaborations with other health professions schools. Respondents identified training for new faculty members in teaching skills, curriculum design, and assessment methods as the most critical need to support future innovation. (+info)
A review of pediatric dentistry program websites: what are applicants learning about our programs?
(42/62)
The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to examine website content provided by U.S. and Canadian pediatric dentistry residency programs, and 2) to understand aspects of program websites that dental students report to be related to their interests. Sixty-eight program websites were reviewed by five interprofessional evaluators. A thirty-six-item evaluation form was organized into 1) program descriptive items listed on the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) website (n=21); 2) additional program descriptive items not listed on the AAPD website but of interest (n=9); and 3) items related to website interface design (n=5). We also surveyed fifty-four dental students regarding their interest in various aspects of program descriptions. The results of this study suggest that pediatric dentistry residency programs in general tend to provide identical or less information than what is listed on the AAPD website. The majority of respondents (76 percent) reported that residency program websites would be their first source of information about advanced programs. The greatest gap between the available website information and students' interests exists in these areas: stipend and tuition information, state licensure, and program strengths. Pediatric dentistry residency programs underutilize websites as a marketing and recruitment tool and should incorporate more information in areas of students' priority interests. (+info)
ADEA CCI vision focuses on preparing graduates for discoveries of the future.
(43/62)
The vision of the American Dental Education Association's Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education (ADEA CCI) is embodied in its new slogan: building consensus and leading change to prepare graduates for an undiscovered future. The ADEA CCI envisions a future in which dental practice is vastly different from what it is today and dental education must be very different for graduates who face a future of unimaginable scientific discovery. Dental curricula need to change to better prepare today's dental students, not only for the practice of today but also for the challenges they will face in their practices of the future. The goal of "building consensus" is directed toward the many constituencies that work with dental education and its graduates. The ADEA CCI has developed a variety of policy recommendations, strategies, and resources to help policymakers, dental educators, and dental graduates better prepare for this undiscovered future. A key resource is twenty-two commissioned white papers that cover diverse topics, such as curriculum reform, facilitating change, faculty development, student assessment, and academic leadership. (+info)
Minority dental faculty development: responsibility and challenge.
(44/62)
Over at least the last twenty years, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) has given attention and priority to increasing the number of underrepresented minority (URM) dental school applicants, enrollees, and faculty members and to meeting the challenges of achieving diversity in the oral health workforce of the future as racial and ethnic minorities continue to grow and are expected to comprise more than 50 percent of the U.S. population by the middle of the twenty-first century. Dental schools have the responsibility of preparing dentists to provide oral health care for the nation's population. This includes creating a workforce of adequate size and racial/ethnic composition. As part of ADEA's priorities to improve the recruitment, retention, and development of URMs in the dental profession, with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, ADEA launched the Minority Dental Faculty Development Program in 2004. The intent of the program is to foster academic partnerships, mentoring, and institutional commitment and leadership designed to increase the number of URM individuals interested in and prepared for careers in academic dentistry. (+info)
Overview of the oral HIV/AIDS Research Alliance Program.
(45/62)
Factors influencing publication rates of abstracts presented at the ADEA annual session & exhibition.
(46/62)
Factors related to the path of abstracts from presentation at a conference to publication as a full article have been analyzed in the medical field, but only a few studies have been performed in dentistry. This study investigated the rate of publication of articles based on abstracts presented at the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Annual Session & Exhibition in 2002 and 2003 and the time lag to publication. This study also aimed to characterize the abstracts and subsequent articles and determine if there were any significant factors related to expansion of an abstract into a full manuscript. A total of 370 abstracts met the inclusion criteria and were examined for this study. Subsequent published articles were located using a standard PubMed search. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were used to analyze the data collected (alpha=0.05). Results suggest that there was a low (19 percent) publication rate for articles based on abstracts presented at the meetings studied. The median time between abstract presentation and article publication was ten months. Factors that showed significant correlation to likelihood of article publication were multiple affiliations, presence of analytical statistics, and, to a lesser extent, funding. We suggest that presenters at these meetings should expand their abstracts into full manuscripts and seek to publish them in peer-reviewed journals for the benefit of the profession. (+info)
Sir John Tomes FRS, Fellows of the Royal Society, and dental reform in the nineteenth century.
(47/62)
In this paper Sir John Tomes HonFRCS LDS FRS (1815-95), surgeon-dentist, is presented as the agent through whose membership of the Royal Society the previously disorganized profession of dentistry shared in the process of reform and scientific progress that engaged the medical profession in the second half of the nineteenth century. The study identifies 70 of the Fellows of the Royal Society who were involved in medical and dental research and/or who gave structure and effect to the governance of the medical and dental professions. In recording the education of Tomes as a scientist, his election to the Society and his place in the process of reform, the paper identifies the Royal Society as a superculture, enabling him to act at a functional remove from the cultures of the surgeons and the dentists of the day. (+info)
Improving tobacco dependence education among the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry faculty.
(48/62)
Tobacco-related health problems are among the most preventable forms of illness. By assuming proactive tobacco use counseling roles, dental professionals can help reduce the number of people who use tobacco. Minimum standards for intervention by dental care providers were established more than a decade ago by the American Dental Association and the American Dental Hygienists' Association. The goal of Loma Linda University School of Dentistry in its tobacco-cessation efforts is to move beyond those standards towards more effective interventions. The school conducted a study to determine the formal education of the faculty, evaluate the current state of tobacco dependence education (TDE) delivered to students, identify topics that dental faculty members wanted to further their education, promote tobacco dependence education among the dental faculty, and enhance teaching moments on the clinic floor. A fifty-seven question survey was e-mailed to all faculty members with >0.4 FTE (full-time equivalent) during the 2007-08 school year. The response rate was 80 percent (101 out of 126). The results revealed that faculty members have limited formal training; however, 73.1 percent agreed that TDE would be beneficial to them. They also believed that, upon graduation, dental professionals should be able to perform at least a ten-minute moderate intervention program and discuss options for tobacco dependence treatments with patients. This project was designed to establish a 2008-09 baseline of TDE clinical practices, knowledge, and attitudes and to assess the effects of faculty development, curricular didactic, and clinical changes. (+info)