JDE
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

J Dent Educ. 73(8): 919-933 2009
© 2009 American Dental Education Association
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Horst, J. A.
Right arrow Articles by Lee, A. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Horst, J. A.
Right arrow Articles by Lee, A. H.

Critical Issues in Dental Education

Observation, Assisting, Apprenticeship: Cycles of Visual and Kinesthetic Learning in Dental Education

Jeremy A. Horst, D.D.S., M.S.; Matthew D. Clark, B.S., B.A.; Andrew H. Lee

Key words: dentistry, education, observation, apprenticeship

Submitted for publication 03/09/09; accepted 04/27/09

Dentists are self-selected for visual and kinesthetic learning preferences. Watching another practitioner perform treatment can be incredibly didactic, both before and after learning the procedure. This missing part of dental education has the capacity to play a tremendous role in dental education for all levels of practitioner. Dental students in their clinical years begin to realize the meaning of dentistry as a practice, a set of skills that are never perfected. Abundant evidence demonstrates that cycling between observation and practice enhances procedural learning and retention, yet this mechanism is vastly underused in dental education. Collaborative treatment paradigms, wherein the able student assists a more experienced practitioner, can create mentorship. Learning potentially esoteric information or subtle nuances of clinical acumen is facilitated by the contextual framework of the clinical environment and is strengthened by emotional attachments through interpersonal interactions. In this article, we explore the evidence surrounding mentorship and clinical observation both before and after students are given the responsibilities of patient care, which together recapitulate clinical apprenticeship. Finally, we present examples of how apprenticeship can be brought back to dental education, including evaluation of a clinical assisting program that we implemented and explanation of a hypothetical faculty-student practice partnership model.






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by the American Dental Education Association.