Victoroff Kristin Zakariasen, Hogan Sarah
School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106-4905, USA.
J Dent Educ. 2006 Feb;70(2):124-32.
Students' views of their educational experience can be an important source of information for curriculum assessment. Although quantitative methods, particularly surveys, are frequently used to gather such data, fewer studies have employed qualitative methods to examine students' dental education experiences. The purpose of this study is to explore characteristics of effective learning experiences in dental school using a qualitative method. All third-year (seventy) and fourth-year (seventy) dental students enrolled in one midwestern dental school were invited to participate. Fifty-three dental students (thirty-five male and eighteen female; thirty-two third-year and twenty-one fourth-year) were interviewed using a critical incident interview technique. Each student was asked to describe a specific, particularly effective learning incident that he or she had experienced in dental school and a specific, particularly ineffective learning incident, for comparison. Each interview was audiotaped. Students were assured that only the interviewer and one additional researcher would have access to the tapes. Data analysis resulted in identification of key themes in the data describing characteristics of effective learning experiences. The following characteristics of effective learning experiences were identified: 1) instructor characteristics (personal qualities, "checking-in" with students, and an interactive style); 2) characteristics of the learning process (focus on the "big picture," modeling and demonstrations, opportunities to apply new knowledge, high-quality feedback, focus, specificity and relevance, and peer interactions); and 3) learning environment (culture of the learning environment, technology). Common themes emerged across a wide variety of learning incidents. Although additional research is needed, the characteristics of effective learning experiences identified in this study may have implications for individual course design and for the dental school curriculum as a whole.
学生对其教育经历的看法可能是课程评估的重要信息来源。尽管定量方法，尤其是调查，经常被用于收集此类数据，但较少有研究采用定性方法来考察学生的牙科教育经历。本研究的目的是使用定性方法探索牙科学校有效学习经历的特征。邀请了一所中西部牙科学校的所有三年级（70名）和四年级（70名）牙科学生参与。采用关键事件访谈技术对53名牙科学生（35名男性和18名女性；32名三年级和21名四年级）进行了访谈。要求每名学生描述他或她在牙科学校经历的一次具体的、特别有效的学习事件以及一次具体的、特别无效的学习事件，以便进行比较。每次访谈都进行了录音。向学生保证只有访谈者和另一名研究人员可以接触这些磁带。数据分析确定了描述有效学习经历特征的数据中的关键主题。确定了有效学习经历的以下特征：1）教师特征（个人品质、与学生“沟通”以及互动风格）；2）学习过程的特征（关注“全局”、示范和演示、应用新知识的机会、高质量反馈、重点、具体性和相关性以及同伴互动）；3）学习环境（学习环境的文化、技术）。在各种各样的学习事件中出现了共同的主题。尽管还需要进一步研究，但本研究确定的有效学习经历的特征可能对个别课程设计以及整个牙科学校课程都有影响。
