This dental programme has been self-sustaining and is providing some access to care where none existed previously. Programmes such as this may be one solution to the access to dental care problem in long-term refugee camps.
Dental schools must prepare future dentists to deliver culturally sensitive care to diverse patient populations, but there is little agreement on how best to teach these skills to students. This article examines this question by exploring the historical and theoretical foundations of this area of education in dentistry, analyzes what is needed for students to learn to provide culturally sensitive care in a dental setting, and identiies the discipline-speciic skills students must master to develop this competence. The problems associated with single-discipline, lecture-based approaches to teaching culturally sensitive care are outlined, and the advantages of an interdisciplinary, patient-centered, skills-based approach to teaching culturally sensitive care are described. The authors advocate for an approach to teaching culturally sensitive care that builds upon learning in the behavioral sciences, ethics, and public health. Component skills and perspectives offered by each of these curriculum areas are identiied, and their contributions to the teaching of culturally sensitive care are described. Finally, the need to consider the timing of this instruction in the dental curriculum is examined, along with instructional advantages associated with an approach that is shared by faculty across the curriculum.
Objective
This study aimed to validate the learning effectiveness of an instructional module in helping first‐year dental students and international graduate advanced standing students learn to avoid plagiarism in their scientific writing.
Method
The module was administered to a total of 226 first year dental students (157 at the University of Pittsburgh, in 2018 and 2019; 69 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in 2019), and a total of 102 international graduate advanced standing students at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in 2019 and 2020. Psychometric analysis of the module's test items confirmed reliability and validity.
Results
An independent sample t‐test performed on the module pretest scores determined that the first ‐year dental students entered their programs with more knowledge about plagiarism than the international graduate advanced standing students. Mean differences were calculated between pretest and posttest scores for each group and indicated that the module was equally effective at helping both groups learn to avoid plagiarism. An independent sample t‐test compared the posttest mean scores of the 2 groups and determined that the first ‐year students achieved a greater learning outcome from the module. An independent sample t‐test for Equality of Means with Levene's Test for Equality of Variances were performed to compare the mean differences between posttest and pretest scores for the 2 groups. These tests indicated that the 2 groups learned to avoid plagiarism at the same rate.
Conclusions
The instructional module proved to be valid, reliable, effective, and time‐efficient in improving student knowledge about avoiding plagiarism.
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