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Reflective Blogs in Clinical Education to Promote Critical Thinking in Dental Hygiene Students
Author(s) -
Wetmore Ann O'Kelley,
Boyd Linda D.,
Bowen Denise M.,
Pattillo Robin E.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.1002/j.0022-0337.2010.74.12.tb05009.x
Subject(s) - rubric , critical thinking , dental hygiene , psychology , intervention (counseling) , hygiene , critical reflection , oral hygiene , medical education , reflection (computer programming) , dentistry , test (biology) , medicine , mathematics education , pedagogy , nursing , computer science , paleontology , pathology , biology , programming language
One challenge facing dental hygiene, as well as dental, education is to identify clinical teaching strategies promoting critical thinking and clinical reasoning. These skills are crucial elements in the practice of dental hygiene. A two‐group design (intervention, n =28, and control, n =30) assessed first‐year dental hygiene students using pre‐and post‐Health Science Reasoning Test (HSRT) scores to evaluate the effect of reflective blogging on critical thinking skills. A reflective blog rubric, based on Mezirow's levels of reflection, determined if reflective blogging increased the level of reflection for dental hygiene students. The results suggest within this nonprobability sample that reflective blogging did not produce a significant change in students’ HSRT scores ( p >0.05). However, analyses of reflective blog rubric scores demonstrated statistically significant improvements ( p <0.05) in students’ levels of reflection. Furthermore, data analysis revealed a correlation ( p <0.05) between HSRT subscale scores and the element of reflection scores for the intervention group. This study addressed needs of the dental and dental hygiene education community by examining the use of blogs, an emerging technology, as a tool for reflecting on clinical experiences and, in turn, for promoting critical thinking.