Hood Janet Grobe
Houston, Dental Branch, 6516 M.D. Anderson Blvd., Suite 493, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
J Dent Educ. 2009 Apr;73(4):454-63.
Community-based service-learning is increasingly common in dental education. By definition, service-learning combines educational goals with service to the community, and the community and school are equal partners. The three main goals of service-learning are improving learning, promoting civic engagement, and strengthening communities. There have been calls from many groups to reform dental education to better serve the public, and service-learning is one of the most often recommended methods to help meet this goal. One of the key attributes of service-learning is its potential to promote civic engagement and social responsibility during the student's education. The social responsibility of dentists and aspects of professionalism can be learned by students through participation in well-structured service-learning programs. Community-based service-learning programs can also address societal needs by improving the public's access to oral health care through partnerships among dental schools, oral health providers, and communities. This article describes service-learning programs at several dental schools to illustrate application of this educational strategy in predoctoral dental education. This article also describes challenges that confront schools desiring to implement and sustain service-learning programs, including academic quality, faculty development and training, interprofessionalism, making time in the curriculum, budget, faculty shortages and time, student credit, quality control, and remote sites away from the dental school.
基于社区的服务学习在牙科教育中越来越普遍。根据定义，服务学习将教育目标与社区服务相结合，社区和学校是平等的伙伴。服务学习的三个主要目标是改善学习、促进公民参与和加强社区。许多团体呼吁改革牙科教育以更好地服务公众，而服务学习是最常被推荐的有助于实现这一目标的方法之一。服务学习的关键属性之一是它在学生教育期间促进公民参与和社会责任的潜力。学生可以通过参与精心组织的服务学习项目来学习牙医的社会责任和专业精神的各个方面。基于社区的服务学习项目还可以通过牙科学校、口腔健康提供者和社区之间的伙伴关系，改善公众获得口腔保健的机会，从而满足社会需求。本文介绍了几所牙科学校的服务学习项目，以说明这种教育策略在牙科博士前教育中的应用。本文还描述了希望实施和维持服务学习项目的学校所面临的挑战，包括学术质量、教师发展和培训、跨专业合作、在课程中安排时间、预算、教师短缺和时间、学生学分、质量控制以及远离牙科学校的偏远地点。
