Use of a rubric for calibration among faculty members and as students' self-assessment tool

Abstract

The practical examination is designed to evaluate periodontal instrumentation of second year dental students on typodonts before they are allowed to perform scaling and root planing for their patients. The failure rate in the practical examination ranged from 16-31% over the past three years. An average of 32 out of 130 students failed the first practical examination. The failed students were offered to take additional examinations until they passed. Although most students passed the first practical examination, they still exhibited some deficiencies in the clinic especially early in junior year. Therefore, lack of maintaining acquired skills and scarcity of self-assessing their skills have been brought up by the faculty members in the department of periodontics at The University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD). One of the most important skills for healthy care providers is the ability to self-assess one’s competence and consequently to identify individual deficiencies and the needs for further learning. Thus, the importance of self-assessment has been highlighted by the Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education. However, a self-assessment has not been introduced to dental students in the periodontics courses at the UMSOD. A new rubric was developed for second year dental students to define the categories for each point value and to emphasize the critical failure. If a student uses the incorrect end of the instrument at all times (without self-correction), the student will receive 0 point in that particulars instrument. The new rubric was also intended to be used as a self-assessment tool for students in preparation for the practical examination.