Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online Ahead of Print
    • Past Issues
  • Info for
    • Authors
      • Resources
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
    • Subscribing
  • About
    • About the JDE
    • Editorial Board
  • More
    • Alerts
    • Feedback
    • Reprints
    • Help
  • Other Publications

User menu

  • My Alerts
  • Log In
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Journal of Dental Education
Visit the American Dental Education Association's main website
  • My Alerts
  • Log In
  • My Cart
Journal of Dental Education

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current Issue
    • Online Ahead of Print
    • Past Issues
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
    • Subscribing
  • About
    • About the JDE
    • Editorial Board
  • More
    • Alerts
    • Feedback
    • Reprints
    • Help
  • Visit jde Template on Facebook
  • Follow jde Template on Twitter
  • Follow jde Template on YouTube
  • View jde RSS feed
  • TOC Alerts
EditorialEditor’s Note

Knowing Where We’re Going in Assessment

Nadeem Y. Karimbux
Journal of Dental Education December 2013, 77 (12) 1555;
Nadeem Y. Karimbux
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site

GTranslate

English French German Italian Portuguese Russian Spanish
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Yogi Berra once said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.” Perhaps nowhere is this more applicable than when we think about how we assess our students: A, B, C, D, F; A+, A, A−, B+, B, B−, C+, C, C−; 4.0, 3.5, 3.0, 2.5, 2.0; H, P, F; points off for being late, no points for missed work, extra points for work handed in on time; Competencies, Experiences, Thresholds.

In an article titled “Remaking the Grade, From A to D” (Chronicle of Higher Education, September 14, 2009; http://chronicle.com/article/Remaking-the-Grade-From-A-to/48352/), leadership and learning expert Douglas B. Reeves asks educators to think about how grading policies influence student performance and behavior. He specifically comments on the accuracy, fairness, and effectiveness of grading policies. In the area of effectiveness, he challenges faculty members to ask themselves: “Were my students last semester more engaged, responsive, and successful than students in previous years?” If the answer is yes, then he says the grading policies are working. He mentions remaining surprised at how many faculty members complain that their students are “disrespectful, inattentive, disengaged, and unresponsive,” while at the same time the teachers use the same grading policies year after year. He observes that athletes and students learning music are not given midterms, finals, or averages. Instead, they are given feedback and coached for the purpose of improving performance. He also makes an interesting comment on how students in this generation receive feedback while playing video games and thus move very rapidly from being novices to expert players!

Curriculum reform has been a central theme for many dental schools, for the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) through the work of the ADEA Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education (ADEA CCI), and for the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) through the revised predoctoral standards; and many curricular changes involve interdisciplinary teaching, integration, and problem-based and critical thinking exercises. If we do not align our assessments to match our curriculum objectives, our best efforts will fail. We have to ensure that our students reach at least minimal levels of competence on many different fronts. Knowledge base, attitudes, values, and skills are all a part of what we are asked to assess on a daily basis. Since choosing the right type of assessment in each area is critical to our students’ success, we should use summative assessments to judge knowledge base or clinical competence, and we should use formative assessments for the development of attitudes, values, and skills.

This month’s Journal of Dental Education includes several articles that address recent attempts to improve assessment in various settings. We hear about how dental students can study for national board exams using an online review platform, and we learn from the board exam developers how they use practice analyses to assess validity and how models for reporting results to schools have recently changed. Another article describes a reliability study conducted to refine case-based questions on the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination, while another explains how researchers analyzed the use of distractors in multiple-choice examinations as a way to improve assessment in an oral and maxillofacial pathology course.

Whatever the setting, our challenge is to create the right balance of feedback-driven formative assessment in the areas of attitudes, values, and skills. These types of assessments—such as objective simulated clinical examinations (OSCEs), triple jumps, oral presentations, and portfolios—are time-consuming and are sometimes viewed as being “softer” assessments. However, their importance in coaching our students to improve their performance can no longer be ignored. At the journal, we have received and will continue to receive manuscripts on the development, implementation, and outcomes of these formative assessments, as members of the community of dental educators share their findings and experiences in this vital area of concern. This is all to the good since, as Yogi Berra also said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Journal of Dental Education: 77 (12)
Journal of Dental Education
Vol. 77, Issue 12
1 Dec 2013
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

GTranslate

English French German Italian Portuguese Russian Spanish
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of Dental Education.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Knowing Where We’re Going in Assessment
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of Dental Education
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of Dental Education web site.
Citation Tools
Knowing Where We’re Going in Assessment
Nadeem Y. Karimbux
Journal of Dental Education Dec 2013, 77 (12) 1555;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Request Permissions

Share
Knowing Where We’re Going in Assessment
Nadeem Y. Karimbux
Journal of Dental Education Dec 2013, 77 (12) 1555;
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Linkedin Share Button

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • 2018 Year-End Metrics
  • Reviewer Thank You
  • Lean Product Development and Publish Ahead of Print
Show more Editor’s Note

Similar Articles

About

  • About ADEA
  • About the JDE
  • Editorial Review Board
  • Contact Us

Author Information

  • Submit a Paper
  • Submission Information
  • FAQ for Authors
  • Reprint Policies

More Information

  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Email Alerts
  • Help

© 2019 Journal of Dental Education

Powered by HighWire