Reflections on clinical practice by first-year dental students: a qualitative study.

Full Abstract

During the first and second year of the dental curriculum, students have little time to process and learn the didactic material in a meaningful way because of the large number of required courses in the curriculum. If an outcome of dental education is to promote critical thinking, however, methods need to be explored to encourage this process in dental students throughout the curriculum. Reflecting on experience is the way learners "make meaning" out of the information they acquire, and "making meaning" is an integral component in the development of critical thinking. The purpose of this pilot study was to explore how reflection on clinical experiences may facilitate the development of critical thinking in first-year dental students as well as assist them in integrating their didactic coursework with clinical care. I used Luborsky's thematic analysis to analyze semi-structured interviews, clinical observations, and written reflection papers from dental students. The major themes identified from the data were:
1) connections between didactic material and the clinical experience, 2) the students' vision of their future role as dentists, and 3) the nature of the dentist-patient interaction. The data further suggest a process of reflective thinking that begins with students' questioning assumptions about their prior experience and knowledge that leads them to look at things in a new way and ultimately to recognize the need to take some action to provide care to the patient. The findings suggest that encouraging students to keep a clinic journal or write reflection papers about their experience may be a way to enhance student learning and is an area that deserves further research.

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Author information

Author/s: Boyd, Linda D (LD);

Affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland 97201, USA. boydL@ohsu.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of dental education (J Dent Educ), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Jun; vol 66 (issue 6) : pp 710-20

Dates: Created 2002/07/15; Completed 2002/08/02; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 12117092, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Female
Humans
Interviews as Topic
Learning
Male
Pilot Projects
Problem Solving
Reproducibility of Results
Students, Dental
Thinking

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