Page 119 - Demo

General discussion1177Be prepared and feel preparedEven students who feel competent do not estimate their skills as being at the level that is expected of a general dental practitioner (chapter 3). This discrepancy might result from employing the term ‘safe beginner’ for dentists at graduation (Field 2017). Or it may result from anticipating lifelong learning (chapter 3). Another reason may be, however, that students feel competent because they have passed the assessments, while the discrepancy might reflect failure to fail (i.e. passing underperformance). When teaching staff for any reason pass a student who has not the required level of competence, it is a blessing if the student has higher expectations of the skills of a general dental practitioner than they have of their own, since that will probably be an incentive to improve their skills. To ensure that students have the required level of competence at graduation, assessments should be valid and reliable, and teaching staff should be successful in failing students who have not the required knowledge, practical skills or deep understanding. At graduation, students are considered to be prepared enough for their jobs as dentist. However, they should not only be prepared but also feel prepared, and understand that they have enough skills to manage in practice and fulfil all the duties of a dentist. Learning for deep understanding may help to accomplish this. Deep understanding facilitates the transfer of skills (Perkins 1991). Within ACTA’s undergraduate curriculum, there might be room to improve understanding in Endodontology (chapter 2). This is illustrated by the finding that most of the ACTA students underestimated the complexity of the root canal treatment that they were planning to perform, and that students took unnecessary radiographs while performing root canal treatment (chapter 2). Determining the difficulty level of the root canal treatment is important to get insight into the possible challenges one could encounter while performing the treatment. If one foresees the possible challenges, it will be more likely that one will be able to manage and provide quality treatment than if one is not aware that these may be faced. Deep understanding in Endodontology is important for taking good care of patients (chapters 1 and 5). Students’ understanding should be assessed, both formative and summative. To assess understanding, it might be useful to ask students to provide a reflective narrative in relation to their work: what went well and how did they reach their conclusions, what did not go so well and what Annemarie Baaij.indd 117 28-06-2023 12:26