Teaching Cell Biology to Dental Students with a Project‐Based Learning Approach

Abstract

Although the discipline of cell biology (CB) is part of the curricula of predoctoral dental schools, students often fail to recognize its practical relevance. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a practical-theoretical project-based course in closing the gaps among CB, scientific research, and dentistry for dental students. A project-based learning course was developed with nine sequential lessons to evaluate 108 undergraduate dental students enrolled in CB classes of a Brazilian school of dentistry during 2013-16. To highlight the relevance of in vitro studies in the preclinical evaluation of dental materials at the cellular level, the students were challenged to complete the process of drafting a protocol and performing a cytocompatibility assay for a bone substitute used in dentistry. Class activities included small group discussions, scientific database search and article presentations, protocol development, lab experimentation, and writing of a final scientific report. A control group of 31 students attended only one laboratory class on the same theme, and the final reports were compared between the two groups. The results showed that the project-based learning students had superior outcomes in acknowledging the relevance of in vitro methods during biocompatibility testing. Moreover, they produced scientifically sound reports with more content on methodological issues, the relationship with dentistry, and the scientific literature than the control group (p<0.05). The project-based learning students also recognized a higher relevance of scientific research and CB to dental practice. These results suggest that a project-based approach can help contextualize scientific research in dental curricula.

Transfer: A Review for Biology and the Life Sciences

“…Project-based learning, one-onone tutoring, and cooperative group work can encourage individual interest (Mitchell, 1993;Schraw and Dennison, 1994;Hoffmann, 2002;Hidi and Renninger, 2006). Project-based learning in particular is a popular approach within biology and the life sciences, generally exhibiting improvements in learning and transfer gains compared with non-project based approaches (see Beach and Alvarez, 2015;Berchiolii et al, 2017;Costa-Silva et al, 2018). For example, a project-based learning approach in cell biology improved dental students' ability to recognize the relevance of cell biology to dentistry and improved their ability to produce reports that focused on scientific methodology and its relationship to dentistry (Costa-Silva et al, 2018).…”

Blended Module‐Based Teaching in Biostatistics and Research Methodology: A Retrospective Study with Postgraduate Dental Students

“…[16][17][18] Other studies of these pedagogical techniques in dental curricula have found improved results in terms of students' understanding of the concept, relected in their academic performance. [19][20][21] However, implementation of these pedagogical techniques and their combination in postdoctoral dental programs in subjects like biostatistics and research methodology has not previously been explored. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare postgraduate dental students' academic performance using two teaching methodologies (video-based learning and blended module-based learning) in a biostatistics and research methodology course in a master's program at a dental college in India.…”

Raising awareness about microbial antibiotic resistance in undergraduate dental students: a research-based strategy for teaching non-laboratory elements of a microbiology curriculum

“…The introduction of project-based learning in microbiology curriculum reform enhanced the consolidation of theory knowledge, improved experimental skills, cultivated innovative scientific thinking, and strengthened the awareness of oral health in a study from Japan [26]. In another study, this time focusing on teaching cell biology to dental students, the authors found that students receiving the project-based learning approach were more familiar with the importance methodological issues, were able to produce written reports of higher quality, better understood the relationship between their subject and the practice of dentistry and were better able to recognize the relevance of biomedical investigation as compared to control students receiving the traditional lecture-based approach [23]. There are few standardized, well designed controlled trials investigating the effectiveness of problem-or project-based learning in dentistry [27] and, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to investigate the outcomes of project-based learning on non-laboratoryskills elements of microbiology teaching.…”

“…The development of creative, engaging programs to stimulate learning of key, contemporary issues in modern dentistry programs is of the highest importance. Multiple authors describe the benefits of student engagement in self-driven research projects with key outcome goals as a strategy to enhance the learning process [22][23][24]. The Microbiology and Virology curriculum is particularly susceptible to such enhancement as students traditionally find the subject complex, dry and difficult to apply to their activity as a dentist.…”