Abstract
Background and Objective: The curricula of dental schools have evolved over the last two decades in an attempt to develop graduates that are critical thinkers that can solve problems related to the overall competency basedmanagement of patients. Inherent to this process is the introduction of teaching and learning strategies that assist professional students in becoming self-directed learners early in their training. At the UWI-SOD self-directedlearning influenced by peer interaction is used in part as a teaching/learning strategy in the delivery of a dental biomaterials course in the second year of study. This study aims to examine student perceptions of this strategy compared to faculty driven instruction. Methods: A 25-item survey, which was previously subjected to a face validity exercise was deployed to the Year 2 cohort after all assessments for the course were completed and final course grades published. Items explored perceptions related to the process of peer assisted learning, peer interaction during group learning, preferences between didactic lectures and peer based learning, preferences on other types of active learning strategies, and preparedness for this type of learning strategy. Items were scored on a 5-point Likert scale from 1-strongly disagree to 5-strongly agree. Overall mean scores for each item were calculated using SPSS (Version 24, IBM, Chicago). Responses were grouped as follows: scores of 1-strongly disagree and 2-disagree were grouped together to show disagreement, scores of 4-agree and 5-strongly agree to show agreement. Results: There was a response rate of 92%. When the process was compared to PBL, 78% of surveyed students preferred this methodology as a learning strategy and 60% preferred didactic lectures over this peer based learning strategy. Sixty-five percent of students agreed that they learnt and assimilated knowledge from their peers during PAL. Only 29% of students preferred PAL over purely didactic lectures. Conclusion: While more than half of the surveyed students claimed they learned from their group peers during peer sessions, the vast majority of students preferred a faculty driven instruction method for the delivery of this course.
Highlights
Dental materials science is a core course in the curriculum of dental schools (General Dental Council, 2002)
When the process was compared to problem based learning (PBL), 78% of surveyed students preferred this methodology as a learning strategy and 60% preferred didactic lectures over this peer based learning strategy
Dental school curricula have evolved over the last 20 years from didactic based lectures that are teacher driven to active learning strategies such as problem based learning (PBL), team based learning (TBL) and case based learning (CBL) that are student driven (Hendricson et al, 2006)
Summary
Dental materials science is a core course in the curriculum of dental schools (General Dental Council, 2002). At the University of the West Indies School of Dentistry (SOD), and in many dental schools, the delivery of the dental biomaterials course happens simultaneously with pre-clinical laboratory based courses such as operative dentistry and fixed and removable prosthodontics (Matthews, 2000) This allows application of learned content into physical use and handling of materials (General Dental Council, 2002). The curricula of dental schools have evolved over the last two decades in an attempt to develop graduates that are critical thinkers that can solve problems related to the overall competency based management of patients Inherent to this process is the introduction of teaching and learning strategies that assist professional students in becoming self-directed learners early in their training. Sixty-five percent of students agreed that they learnt and assimilated knowledge from their peers
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