ERSU Research Project Highlights 2019

With the Educational Research & Scholarship Unit, the School of Dentistry is committed to promotion of scholarship in teaching and education through programs of research on the teaching/ learning and knowledge translation process.

OUR MISSION The Educational Research Scholarship Unit’s mission within the School of Dentistry is to focus on the advancement of educational research and scholarship to enhance teaching processes and student experience.

OUR VISION

The Educational Research Scholarship Unit’s vis that impact educational practice and policy to d as well as other colleagues in post-secondary e

ERSU OPERATIONAL COMMITTEE Sharon Compton Director

Hollis Lai Researcher

Arnaldo Perez Education Research Methodologist

Dwight Harley Researcher

Jacqueline Green Research Assistant

Giesele Gaudet-Amigo Curriculum Coordinator

sion is to be a leader in educational research by asking questions disseminate the findings to dental and dental hygiene professionals education.

ERSU EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Assessing dental students’ emotio Ida Kornerup, Sharon Compton, Qi Guo, Mark Gierl

Young patients are often fearful of going to the dentist. But a project led by pediatric dentist Ida Kornerup shows that dental students are often just as apprehensive as their patient.

Dental students often say they feel like they are harming the child or that they are heartbroken every time they treat an uncooperative patient. Therefore, Kornerup decided she wanted to know more about where these emotions arose from and whether anything could be done or included in to the clinics and courses to ease their fears.

To assess student’s emotions during treatment, an 18-question survey was developed. This survey also addressed student perceptions of the curriculum taught for behavioral management techniques in uncooperative and anxious children.

The study found that students feel they need more time for learning behavior management. And that students experienced increased emotions of stress, frustration and anxiousness about the possibility of harming the child. It was identified that increased clinical exposure with pediatric patients is required to better prepare students for graduation and entry-topractice.

A second phase of this study is planned that will help identify the factors that impact student’s experiences while treating uncooperative children.

ons while treating children

ERSU EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Students perceptions of gamifi Wendy Male, Jacqueline Green, Arnaldo Perez

Dental materials can be a very dry course. This project looks at

the effectiveness of using gamification to engage students in active learning, and whether it improves content retention.

During the project, the dental materials class was divided in to 6 teams and the activities were geared at learning materials in a fun but competitive way.

Each team accumulated points throughout the semester. At the end of the semester the learning experiement revealed many things.

At first, students said they didn’t like being taken out of their own social group of friends and being put in different groups.

But appreciated it afterwards because when they went in

to the clinic to practice, they knew most of their classmates already.

The activities also reinforced the concept that students are more engaged when learning from their peers.

A few recommendations from the students to enhance the learning experience included: assigning a grade to the work; reducing the size of teams; and using more challenging questions for quizzes.

The second part of this study will focus on measuring knowledge retention between students who took part in the gamification activities and those who did not.

ication in a dental materials course

ERSU EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Active learning cards Hollis Lai, Patrick von Hauff, Thomas Jeffery

The Active Learning Cards project gives instructors a variety of ways to incorporate active learning into typical lecture-based classes. Instead of using PowerPoint and standing in front of the class and just lecturing, what these cards do is offer a new way to plan your class.

A lecturer would choose a selection of cards from the stack, and plan a session according to what the card suggests. The cards range from group activities to simulations and artificial models - all ways of incorporating active learning.

Further if a lecturer is getting cues from the students that they are disengaging, a quick pull of a card will suggest an activity to get the students back on track.

ERSU EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Active case-based learning in oral pa The confluence of multiple teaching

Seema Ganatra, Tania Doblanko, Kari Rasmussen, Jacqueline John Valentine, Patrick von Hauff

athology: and learning techniques

e Green, This student-centered project looks at moving away from didactic learning and placing emphasis on active case-based learning activities.

The oral pathology seminar - typically a didactic seminar - was transformed into a seminar where students were expected to use their knowledge to diagnose real-life oral pathology cases. The cases selected were those that students would not be typically exposed to during their clinical education, but would likely see in private practice.

During these seminars, teams worked to design a “think-pair-share� activity, where students solved the cases individually, and then compared their answers in pairs, and finally with the entire seminar class.

Additional medical scenarios which altered paitent management were also utilized.

After participating in these seminars, students were able to better demonstrate their current knowledge of common lesions and dental management of medically complex patients; clinical judgement in oral medicine and pathology; reflect on their approach to developing a daignosis and treatment plan; and recognize their role as advocates for their patients.

ERSU EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Clinical dental education: A new app

Steve Patterson, Colleen Starchuk, Hollis Lai, Gisele GaudetSharon Compton, Jacqueline Green, Arnaldo Perez

proach

-Amigo, Anthea Senior, Bernard Linke, The curriculum renewal initiative in the School of Dentistry is a four-year process that includes the redesign of didactic, preclinical, and clinical components of dental education.

In a recent mixed-method study, our CRC research team explored faculty and student views of assessment, including strengths, limitations, and recommendations for improvement. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through focus groups and surveys, and analyzed in parallel using content analysis and descriptive statistics.

Students and faculty were more concerned about clinical than didactic assessments, especially clinical feedback.

While faculty concerns about assessments were mainly related to accuracy (the extent to which assessments represent actual performances), students raised further issues concerning type (formative vs summative), comprehensiveness, consistency, alignment, adequacy, clarity, timeliness, volume, pace, and scheduling.

Similarly, faculty recommendations focused on enhancing the assessment of clinical competencies, while students’ recommendations aimed to enhance the quality of assessments across settings, the use of assessments to improve learning, and the preparation of students for upcoming exams. A multi-level approach seems to be necessary to address perceived limitations of current assessment practices and implement student and faculty recommendations.

ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Periodontal Risk Assessmen

Sally Lockwood, Daniel Clark, Alexandra Sheppard, Wendy Male, Barbara Gitzel, Liran Levin

nt Tool When someone is diagnosed with periodontal disease, it is vital to inform them of their diagnosis and then educate the patient on what is putting them at risk for the disease. Ultimately, this impacts the prognosis and progression of the disease.

That is why dental hygiene clinical professor Sally Lockwood and other dental hygiene faculty created a periodontal risk assessment tool to be used during student clinics to support patient education.

Periodontal risk assessment tools exist but nothing is available to practitioners to support patient care specifically directed at prevention strategies targeting risk factors for periodontal disease.

The new assessment tool identifies several risk factors or category – each category has an impact factor for low, moderate, and high risk. A student then goes through the tool with the patient and marks each risk factor accordingly. A pilot study of 42 periodontal risk assessments was conducted. Early results showed that the chairside tool was an efficient visual tool in identifying a patient’s periodontal risk. This chairside tool has been piloted in the clinic and will be further validated this summer through a summer research project. The goal going forward is to make it an interactive form within Axium.

ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Learning with, from, and abo Minn Yoon, Susan Cauti, Susan Fawcett, Alexandra Sheppard

out: Patients with cancer What does exemplary care look like for a patient with head and neck cancer? Three years ago, Minn Yoon (Associate Professor) pondered this question and worked in collaboration with Alexandra Sheppard (Assistant Director Dental Hygiene, Clinical Education) and colleagues from radiation therapy to design an Interprofessional Education (IPE) learning activity that brought together students from both programs to learn about and from each other the roles and responsibilities they have in the diagnosis, treatment and recovery of a head and neck cancer patient.

Using Darryl’s (a head and neck cancer patient) journey as a framework, specific activities were designed to promote understanding of the journey of the patient’s cancer care experience. For dental hygiene, students demonstrated oral cancer screenings, discussed oral side effects of radiation and oral health

management post treatment. In turn, they learned about treatment planning, treatment procedures and patient education that radiation therapists conduct including simulations at the Cross Cancer Institute using linear accelerators (i.e., Linacs). The IPE activity highlighted the vital role each of these professions play in the patient journey.

This year, a couple of additions were made. First, Medical Laboratory Sciences was added to explain procedures related to processing biopsies and blood. Second, three cancer patients were asked to directly share their personal experience with students at each specific station as they progressed through Darryl’s journey to really emphasize the importance of patient experiences in wholistic care. Patients who took part in this activity shared that knowing such activities were being developed to educate students gave them great hope for our health care system.

ADDITIONAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

Student stressors in a dental Ava Chow, Barbara Gitzel

l hygiene program With high workloads and stress, mental exhaustion and burnout is no surprise for student’s enrolled in healthcare programs. And often, these stressors can affect academic performance and the quality of patient care. This project looks at individual stressors dental hygiene students’ experience in the Dental Hygiene Program at the University of Alberta.

It specifically examined the nature of stress experienced by dental hygiene students; comparing their stress levels to other students; and determining whether these students experience burnout.

Dental hygiene students in 2015 and 2016 completed the National College Health Assessment II (NCHA) which helped identify their current health behaviours. Out of 80 students there was a 60 percent completion rate.

The results were then compared to the 2016 NCHA Canadian Reference

Group consisting of 43,780 students in 41 post-secondary institutions in Canada. A focus group with the dental hygiene students explored the nature of stress in the students.

This project was vital in showing that 78 percent of students reported they were exhausted and 90 percent displayed moderate or high levels of cynicism. The results of the study suggests that by ameliorating the stress experienced, the students will have an enhanced learning experience and reduction in burnout.

In conclusion, dental hygiene students reported higher incidences of mental health challenges than other Canadian post-secondary populations. Incorporation of time and personal management skills as part of the curriculum may reduce the burden of stress and provide students with life skills that may be transferrable to their future careers.