Evaluation Grids for Endodontics Preclinical Practical Activities

Preclinical practical activities (PPAs) are an important part of undergraduate dental education. They are a type of teaching based on practical learning. As a result, the Department of Conservative Dentistry of the Faculty of Dentistry of Casablanca provides endodontic activity sessions for third-year students; the objective is to develop the students’ manual dexterity and prepare them for clinical practice. During these sessions, students are required to perform the various stages of endodontic treatment from taking preoperative radiographs to root canal filling, including the creation of the access cavity and root canal preparation. At the end of the treatment, the act performed is evaluated in its entirety. This evaluation is very often considered to be the final activity of a teaching course, which makes it possible to assess the knowledge and practical aptitude of each student. This approach allows neither the teacher to objectively evaluate the acts performed nor the student to identify his/her difficulties. Concerned by the pitfalls of the methods of evaluation adopted during these activities, we thought about the development of criterion-referenced evaluation grids in order to remedy the subjectivity of the teacher’s assessment and to enable the student to improve his learning.