Evaluating the use of HEIghten critical thinking assessment to monitor critical thinking in dental students.

Abstract

Critical thinking and evidence-based dentistry are skills that dental students are required to demonstrate, but monitoring and quantifying progress can be challenging. This study is investigating whether the HEIghten critical thinking assessment (HCTA) could be used as a potential tool, both for use prior to admitting students, and to monitor whether the students' skills improve over their time at dental school. Freshman dental students (n=92) were given the HCTA during their first semester of dental school. Statistical analyses were then performed to examine the association of Dental Admission Test (DAT) scores (overall, perceptual ability, and total science) and Grade Point Average (GPA) (overall and science) on critical thinking scores (total, analytic, and synthetic). There was a significant positive association between GPA, DAT scores and critical thinking scores. Our results indicate that the HCTA may be a useful tool to enable monitoring of students analytical and synthetic skills throughout their time at dental school.