Department Personnel Management and Work and Organizational Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Eur J Dent Educ. 2010 Nov;14(4):215-20. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-0579.2009.00613.x.
Dental education in Europe faces enormous challenges. One deals with the admission to dental school. Although admission procedures vary considerably across Europe, a characteristic of some systems is that the same procedure is used across students who will ultimately pursue different majors (medical or dental). This is based on the assumptions that there is no significant difference in these students' scores and that the requirements for medicine and dentistry are equal. This study examines these assumptions in the admission exam 'Medical and Dental Studies' in Flanders. Students who pass may choose whether they start medical or dental education. Over an 8-year period (2000-2007), admission exam scores of students starting medicine (n = 4492) were compared to those of students starting dentistry (n = 547). Second, the validity of this exam is examined for both medical and dental education. It was found that students starting dentistry had a significantly lower total score on the admission exam than students starting medicine. Differences were especially striking for the cognitive part of the admission exam. For both medical and dental students, the admission exam score was a valid predictor of academic grades in the first 3 years, although correlations were lower for dental education. These results have implications for admission procedures in countries where the same system is used for both majors. The findings that students who have a lower score choose dental education and that the validity of the exam is slightly lower for dentistry, raise questions about using the same admission exam for two obviously different majors.
欧洲的牙科教育面临着巨大的挑战。其中一个问题涉及到牙科学校的招生。尽管欧洲各地的招生程序差异很大，但一些系统的一个特点是，对于最终将从事不同专业（医学或牙科）的学生，使用相同的程序。这是基于这样的假设，即这些学生的分数没有显著差异，而且医学和牙科的要求是相等的。本研究在佛兰德的“医学和牙科研究”入学考试中检验了这些假设。通过考试的学生可以选择开始医学还是牙科教育。在 8 年的时间里（2000-2007 年），比较了开始医学（n = 4492）和开始牙科（n = 547）的学生的入学考试成绩。其次，还检验了该考试对医学和牙科教育的有效性。结果发现，开始牙科的学生的入学考试总分明显低于开始医学的学生。入学考试认知部分的差异尤为显著。对于医学和牙科学生来说，入学考试成绩都是前 3 年学业成绩的有效预测指标，尽管对于牙科教育来说，相关性较低。这些结果对那些在两个专业中使用相同系统的国家的招生程序具有影响。成绩较低的学生选择牙科教育，而且该考试对牙科的有效性略低，这引发了对使用相同入学考试来招收两个明显不同专业的学生的质疑。
