• James E Milani, Howard H Chi, and David W Chambers.
• Department of Restorative Dentistry, University of the Pacific, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA.
• J Dent Educ. 2007 Feb 1; 71 (2): 235-41.

AbstractThe nature of comments faculty members make about students' clinical performance and the relationship between comments and numerical scores given at the same time have not been studied in dental education. We developed a coding system for comments volunteered by faculty members to supplement the numerical ratings given as part of an established clinical competency evaluation system. Twenty-two hundred coded comments and their matched numerical ratings from more than 100 faculty members were compared for two classes of 146 and 157 students for four quarters. Thirty-seven percent of comments focused on dental performance, 43 percent on patient interactions, and 20 percent on relationships with faculty members or the clinic system. Forty-eight percent of comments were positive in tone. Where multiple comments were available for the same student in a quarter, 33 percent of them were confirmed by other faculty members; 9 percent were contradicted. Significant bidirectional associations were observed between comments (positive or negative) and numerical ratings in the area of patient interactions. For technical procedures and for interactions with faculty and the clinic, including professional demeanor, significant unidirectional associations predominated. The findings suggest that faculty members assume that students are skilled in these areas and tend to comment when their expectations are not fulfilled.

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