Journal of dental education
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In today's dental education environment, a humanistic culture is an expectation for all U. S. dental schools, codified in 2013 by its inclusion in the Commission on Dental Accreditation's standards for accreditation. The University of the Pacific Arthur A. ⋯ Authentic assessment of institutional culture proved challenging. Focus groups offered additional ways to assess how effectively the school lives its core value of humanism. There was recognition that more varied, robust methods were needed to assess institutional alignment with stated goals for a humanistic learning environment.
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Critical thinking skills are essential for the successful dentist, yet few explicit skillsets in critical thinking have been developed and published in peer-reviewed literature. The aims of this article are to 1) offer an assessable critical thinking teaching model with the expert's thought process as the outcome, learning guide, and assessment instrument and 2) offer three critical thinking skillsets following this model: for geriatric risk assessment, technology decision making, and situation analysis/reflections. For the objective component, the student demonstrates delivery of each step in the thought process. ⋯ The model was thus judged to be successful for students to demonstrate critical thinking skillsets in the course settings. Students consistently delivered each step of the thought process and were nearly as consistent in grasping the principles behind each step. As more critical thinking skillsets are implemented, a reinforcing network develops.
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The aim of this article is to provide a general overview of trends impacting the faculty of U. S. dental schools. ⋯ The first part of the report describes general characteristics of faculty trends, and the second part provides an analysis of those trends. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."
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This executive summary for Section 1 of the "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century" project provides a composite picture of information from 12 background articles on the current state of dental education in the United States. The summary includes the following topics: the current status of the dental curriculum, the implications of student debt and dental school finances, the expansion of enrollment, student diversity, pre- and postdoctoral education, safety net status of dental school clinics, and trends in faculty.
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This article provides an overview of the status of students applying to and enrolling in dental schools in the United States over a ten-year period from 2004-05 to 2014-15. The data are mainly drawn from published reports of the American Dental Association (ADA) and American Dental Education Association (ADEA). This overview includes trends on tuition levels, diversity in enrollment, and debt levels of students upon graduation as well as students' satisfaction with their education. This article was written as part of the project "Advancing Dental Education in the 21st Century."