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Students’ perceptions of vertical and horizontal integration in a discipline‐based dental school
Author(s) -
Postma T. C.,
White J. G.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
european journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1600-0579
pISSN - 1396-5883
DOI - 10.1111/eje.12186
Subject(s) - horizontal integration , cohort , curriculum , medicine , vertical integration , horizontal and vertical , variance (accounting) , repeated measures design , medical education , perception , integrated curriculum , cohort study , family medicine , psychology , pedagogy , statistics , mathematics , geometry , marketing , neuroscience , political science , law , business , accounting
Abstract Introduction Integration is a key concern in discipline‐based undergraduate dental curricula. Therefore, this study compared feedback on integration from students who participated in different instructional designs in a Comprehensive Patient Care course. Methods The study was conducted at the University of Pretoria (2009–2011). Third‐year cohorts (Cohorts A, B and C) participated in pre‐clinical case‐based learning, whilst fourth‐year cohorts (Cohorts D and E) received didactic teaching in Comprehensive Patient Care. Cohorts A, D and E practised clinical Comprehensive Patient Care in a discipline‐based clinic. Cohort B conducted their Comprehensive Patient Care patient examinations in a dedicated facility supervised by dedicated faculty responsible to teach integration. Students had to indicate on visual analogue scales whether the way they were taught at the school helped them to integrate knowledge from the same (horizontal integration) and preceding (vertical integration) year of study. The end‐points of the scales were defined as ‘definitely’ and ‘not at all’. Analysis of variance ( ANOVA ) was employed to measure the differences between cohorts according to the year of study. Results Third‐year case‐based learning cohorts rated the horizontal integration close to 80/100 and vertical integration ranging from 64 to 71/100. In year four, Cohort B rated vertical and horizontal integration 9–15% higher ( ANOVA , P < 0.05) than Cohorts A and D. In year five, Cohort A rated vertical and horizontal integration 11–18% higher ( ANOVA , P < 0.05) than Cohorts D and E. Conclusion Pre‐clinical case‐based learning and Comprehensive Patient Care supervised by dedicated faculty were associated with more favourable perceptions about integration in the discipline‐based undergraduate dental curriculum.