DHED 408: Principles of Practice III
Donna Aden, RDH, MEd
Student Survey
During the Fall 2011, Donna Aden was the course faculty member for Principles of Practice III for the Dental Hygiene program. The course required students to spend 15 hours a week in dental clinicals and rotations in order to apply their knowledge and practice in the field. As a member of the 2011 i2a Institute Part-time Faculty Cohort, Aden identified an area of opportunity within the course and applied critical thinking to improve the student experience. Aden explains, "Going around the wheel, I asked the question ‘How do we know if these learning outcomes are being reached at an acceptable level by each dental hygiene student?'"
Going around the wheel, I asked the question 'How do we know if these learning outcomes are being reached at an acceptable level by each dental hygiene student?'
In order to answer this question, Aden created and implemented a Self-Confidence Survey. The survey was given to students during the first month of class to assess their confidence with significant proficiencies and then again six weeks later to re-assess their confidence levels. Students kept a duplicate copy of their first survey in order to compare their results after some time had passed. The students, course director, and Dental Hygiene faculty were given an explanation of the data which indicated the students felt "very or somewhat" confident in all areas in question, and an increase of at least 17% was reflected in the students' self-confidence level responses in comparison with the results of the initial survey. There were several questions which indicated a lower than ideal level of confidence, but knowledge of this allowed Aden to focus on those important items in the remainder of the course.
"This Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT) activity, Course-related Self-Confidence Survey, went well and accomplished my i2a goal of incorporating the Standards of Critical Thinking in assessing the students in their clearness, accuracy, importance, precision and relevance of the Fundamental and Powerful Concept: the Dental Hygiene Process of Care," shared Aden.