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Selected Publication:
Kirnbauer, B.
Teaching- and learning quality of the oral-surgical education in the undergraduate dental curriculum at the Medical University Graz
Doktoratsstudium der Medizinischen Wissenschaft; Humanmedizin; [ Dissertation ] Graz Medical University; 2019. pp. 134
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- Authors Med Uni Graz:
- Kirnbauer Barbara
- Advisor:
- Jakse Norbert
- Rugani Petra
- Altmetrics:
- Abstract:
- Introduction: Based on the so-called Bologna process, which was initiated 20 year ago, higher education institutions throughout Europe have seriously changed their study programs, targeting on harmonisation and comparability. Further to that, also the study program of “Dental medicine” was introduced in Austria in 1998 and has, since then, also been offered in Graz. In the preclinical years scientific basics are taught. In the clinical part an all-encompassing practical education, by means of a vocational training, preparing students to become safe and independent acting dental practitioners, stands in the foreground. Students engage with the main dental fields including restorative dentistry, oral surgery, periodontology, prosthodontics and orthodontics. Despite the subjective impressions of offering a high qualitative dental education, student outcomes do not always meet the expectations of the educators on the daily basis. As a result of this the following prospective study was initiated within the course as a form of quality control. Thereby knowledge levels and differences concerning the oral surgical education at the undergraduate dental curriculum of the Medical University of Graz were able to be evaluated for the first time in a standardised way with a special longitudinal assessment tool, the so- called Dental progress test (DPT). Material and methods: DPT participation was decided to be compulsory for all dental students passing their clinical education (terms 7-12) between summer term 2016 and summer term 2017. Each assessment took place at the end of the term and was carried out three times. Out of a specially created 375 items including question pool, three single tests were administered with 100 questions each. After them descriptive and explorative, as well as Rasch analyses were used for evaluation. Results: Overall 173 students, (male: female/ 1:0.7), participated in all three tests. In the post-review process a total of 6 items was excluded. Item responses resulted in similar levels at all three test time points for the categories “correct”, “false” and “don’t know” (Test 1: 61.6%, 26.6%, 11.8%; Test 2: 56.0%, 27.8%, 16.3%; Test 3: 62.1%, 26.5%, 11.4%), also comparable to literature. Thereby a significant increase in “correct” answers from 4th to 5th year with p <.001 and from 5th to 6th year with p =.002 was recognized, however only in Test 2. A significant decrease of “don’t know” answers was seen in Test 1 and 2 from year 4 to 5 with p =.003 and p <.001 and from year 5 to 6 with p <.001 at both. Concerning “false” answers, even a significant increase occurred, however only in Test 1 from year 4 to 5 with p = .009 and from year 5 to 6 with p = .022. The reliability ranged from 0.82-0.88 at all three tests. Within the Rasch analyses the assumption of parallel ICC was met (T1: χ2= 51.071, df= 74, p = .981; T2: χ2= 57.044, df= 67, p = .802; T3: χ2= 58.443, df= 72, p = .876) and item difficulties for the thematic fields were similarly distributed across the latent dimensions. Conclusion: The use of DPT resulted in the first standardised evaluation of applied dental knowledge relat-ed to the undergraduate oral surgical curriculum at the Medical University of Graz. Subse-quently, knowledge levels as well as variation of knowledge between the term cohorts, de-pending on their education status, could be documented. Results showed a favourable, homogeneous response behaviour, along with a similar distribution of included and excluded items within the separate tests and fields. Furthermore, an accurate range of difficulty of the questions could be drawn from the collected data, which provides the basis for further research.