Howard Katherine M, Stewart Tanis, Woodall Wendy, Kingsley Karl, Ditmyer Marcia
School of Dental Medicine, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89106-4124, USA.
J Dent Educ. 2009 Aug;73(8):962-71.
The topic of curriculum reform has received an enormous amount of attention in the field of dental education. While recently established dental schools benefit from the evolution of curriculum change and innovation in constructing their new curricula, these advantages can become lost if the curriculum is not assessed to ascertain the degree to which the curriculum accurately reflects the initial intended goals. The purpose of this educational research project was to evaluate a dental school curriculum to determine the extent of vertical and horizontal integration originally intended. After a faculty retreat that presented a historical perspective and prevalent concepts of the definitions of an integrated curriculum, a survey instrument was distributed to all course directors asking them to assign each of their courses to one of ten established models of integration. Analysis of the survey results allowed the mapping of each of the eighty-four courses to four themes of integration. Chi-square analysis demonstrated courses were distributed in a classic bell-shaped curve along the integration continuum. Dental school year 4 courses mapped to the highest levels of integration, while no courses were assigned to the lowest level (fragment or silo model). All courses were found to have at least some level of integration. More than half (n=43) were found to be both horizontally and vertically integrated.
课程改革的话题在牙科教育领域受到了大量关注。虽然最近新建的牙科学院在构建新课程时受益于课程变革与创新的发展，但如果不对课程进行评估以确定其准确反映最初预期目标的程度，这些优势可能会丧失。这个教育研究项目的目的是评估一所牙科学院的课程，以确定最初预期的纵向和横向整合程度。在一次教员务虚会介绍了整合课程定义的历史视角和普遍概念之后，向所有课程主任发放了一份调查问卷，要求他们将各自的课程分配到十种既定的整合模式之一。对调查结果的分析使得八十四门课程中的每一门都能映射到四个整合主题。卡方分析表明，课程沿着整合连续统呈经典的钟形曲线分布。牙科学院四年级的课程映射到了最高水平的整合，而没有课程被分配到最低水平（碎片化或孤岛模式）。所有课程都被发现至少有一定程度的整合。超过一半（n = 43）的课程被发现同时进行了横向和纵向整合。
