2016 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 11-21
Abstract At T College, in addition to the standard three-year course in dental hygiene, an advanced one-year graduate training program in dental specialties is available to students wishing to become leaders in the field of dental hygiene. For educational training in this program, graduate dental hygiene students are given the opportunity to teach infection prevention to female junior and senior high school students in a class called “Practical training for dental examinations and oral health management.” The aim of this study was to clarify the effectiveness of educational training for graduate dental hygiene students. We conducted a questionnaire survey on graduate dental hygiene students regarding their preparation for teaching the infection prevention classes. We also examined their attitudes toward female junior and senior high school students after teaching the class based on self-evaluation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate attitudes among graduate dental hygiene students regarding female junior and senior high school students after teaching a class on infection prevention. In the self-evaluations after the class, all of the graduate students responded that the educational training had been useful. They also recognized the importance of their classes in assessing the reactions of the junior and senior high school students. These results suggest that educational training in an advanced training program can provide graduate students with a meaningful experience and allow them to learn the importance of acquiring not only knowledge, but also teaching skills and behavior.
