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Purpose/Objectives The current study was undertaken to investigate whether self‐assessment of clinical skills of undergraduate dental students could be bridged with faculty assessment by deliberate training over an extended period. A secondary aim was to explore students' perception of self‐assessment and its effect on their learning and motivation. Material and Methods A prospective pilot study was conducted at the Department of Restorative Dentistry at Damascus University. Sixteen students participated in the study, ranging in age between 22 and 23 years. A modified Direct Observation of Procedural Skills form with a grading rubric was used to register and guide students' self‐assessment; both were pretested on four students before the study. In total, four clinical encounters were completed by each student. Students were trained on how to conduct proper self‐assessment before and after each clinical encounter. A postcourse questionnaire was used to investigate students' perception of self‐assessment. Results Bias in self‐assessment decreased consistently after each encounter, and the difference in bias between the first (bias = 0.77) and the last encounter (bias = 0.21) was significant with a medium effect size (p = .022, d = 0.64). The percentage of disconfirming performance dimensions decreased from 39.7% to 26.9%. Students' ability to exactly pinpoint strengths improved consistently and significantly. However, their ability to pinpoint areas of improvement was volatile and showed no significant difference. Bland–Altman graph plots showed higher levels of agreement between self‐assessment and faculty assessment. Moreover, students' perception of self‐assessment was very positive overall. Conclusions These findings suggest the possibility that the gap between self‐assessment and faculty assessment could be bridged through deliberate training. Future longitudinal research using a larger sample size is still required to further explore whether self‐assessment can be actively bridged with faculty assessment by deliberate training.

Objectives The study was conducted to investigate whether peer-assessment among dental students at the clinical stage can be fostered and become closer to that of experienced faculty assessors. Methods A prospective pilot study was conducted in 2021 at the Faculty of Dentistry, Damascus University. Sixteen 5th year clinical students volunteered to participate in the study. A modified version of the validated Peer Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (Peer-DOPS) assessment form was used together with a grading rubric. Participants undertook peer-assessment on their colleagues across three encounters. The difference between peers and faculty assessment was the main variable. Results The mean difference between peers and faculty assessment decreased after each encounter with a significant difference and a medium effect size between the first and third encounters (p = 0.016, d = 0.67). Peer-assessment was significantly higher than faculty, however, the overestimation declined with each encounter reducing the difference between peer- and faculty assessment. Peers’ perception of the educational benefit of conducting assessment was overwhelmingly positive, reporting improvements in their own performance. Conclusion This pilot study provides preliminary evidence that dental students assessment ability of their peers can be fostered and become closer to that of experienced faculty assessment with practice and assessment-specific instruction.