Effectiveness of Rubrics and Reflection Process Introduced to Basic Dental Practice Education for Pediatric Dentistry

Abstract

With the shift in medical education to an outcome-based paradigm, portfolios are now widely used as effective tools for learning of medical students, who record and organize their learning, track their progress, and reflect on their learning experiences. The process of reflection and using “rubrics”,which contain evaluation criteria and quality definitions, are considered essential for development of a learning portfolio. In the present study, we introduced rubrics and reflection process to basic dental practice education for pediatric dentistry and assessed the effectiveness by a questionnaire survey on 4th grade dental students in 2011-2015 and by comparisons between the initial and final average scores of self-evaluation. We found that many of students considered that rubrics and reflection process were helpful for learning the course. In addition, there were significant differences between both average scores for self-learning competence. Our results suggest that introduction of the rubrics and reflection process was effective for learning of dental students.