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Teaching and assessment of Professional attitudes in UK dental schools – Commentary
Author(s) -
Field J.,
Ellis J.,
Abbas C.,
Germain P.
Publication year - 2010
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/j.1600-0579.2009.00601.x
Subject(s) - formative assessment , grading (engineering) , curriculum , respondent , medical education , variety (cybernetics) , dental education , medicine , summative assessment , teaching method , professional development , psychology , pedagogy , computer science , political science , law , engineering , civil engineering , artificial intelligence
The General Dental Council expects professionalism to be embedded and assessed through‐out the undergraduate dental programme. Curricula need therefore to accommodate these recommendations. A stroll poll of UK dental schools provided a basis for understanding the current methods of teaching and assessing professionalism. All respondent schools recognised the importance of professionalism and reported that this was taught and assessed within their curriculum. For most the methods involved were largely traditional, relying on lectures and seminars taught throughout the course. The most common form of assessment was by grading and providing formative feedback after a clinical encounter. Whilst clinical skills and knowledge can perhaps be readily taught and assessed using traditional methods, those involved in education are challenged to identify and implement effective methods of not only teaching, but also assessing professionalism. A variety of standalone methods need to be developed that assess professionalism and this will, in turn, allow the effectiveness of teaching methods to be assessed.