Page 41 - Demo

Teaching in Endodontics assessed via self-efficacy393IntroductionFor a general dental practitioner, having to perform a root canal treatment can be stressful (1). To a great extent, a person’s action and the amount of effort they will exert while dealing with stressful situations is determined by their self-efficacy (2). Being appropriately skilled is a prerequisite (2). The majority of root canal treatments are performed by general dental practitioners. There are conflicting reports about how well, in their own perception, dental graduates or students who are about to graduate had been prepared for their work as general dental practitioner by their undergraduate endodontic education (3, 4). Many of them felt unprepared and not very confident (5,7) about performing complex endodontic treatments. They felt incompetent performing uncomplicated root canal treatments as well (8). Studies assessing the effect of different methods of teaching endodontics on the confidence, the feelings of preparedness and the competence of students are scarce. One of the few available studies provided evidence for the value of a teaching method, which was new at that time and based upon independent learning, structured reflection and self-assessment. This method of teaching increased the feelings of preparedness of the students and their confidence in their practical skills. It also encouraged students to pursue understanding (9). So far, no research assessing the effect of methods of teaching endodontics has measured students’ self-efficacy. Self-efficacy embraces more than confidence and feelings of preparedness and competence. It is situation-specific selfconfidence; the conviction that one can successfully execute the behaviour required to produce an intended outcome (2). Students’ self-efficacy is responsive to changes in teaching methods and plays a causal role in their development and use of academic competencies (10). Students with high self-efficacy undertake difficult and challenging tasks more readily than students with low self-efficacy do (10). Moreover, the higher the self-efficacy, the greater the perseverance and the higher the likelihood that the task will be performed successfully (11). Therefore, students’ self-efficacy is expected to determine how much effort dental graduates will exert into performing endodontic treatments. In 2010, the undergraduate dental curriculum at our institution was extended, and the endodontic programme was revised. The main changes concerned the increased number of tutorials, the method of clinical training, the method of summative assessment, the number of root canal treatments required and Annemarie Baaij.indd 39 28-06-2023 12:26