Tricio J, Woolford M, Thomas M, Lewis-Greene H, Georghiou L, Andiappan M, Escudier M
King's College London Dental Institute, London, UK.
Faculty of Dentistry, University of los Andes, Santiago, Chile.
Eur J Dent Educ. 2015 Aug;19(3):140-8. doi: 10.1111/eje.12114. Epub 2014 Aug 28.
Peer assessment is increasingly used in health education. The aims of this study were to evaluate the reliability, accuracy, educational impact and student's perceptions of undergraduate pre-clinical and clinical dental students' structured and prospective Peer assessment and peer feedback protocol.
Two Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS) forms were modified for use in pre-clinical and clinical peer assessment. Ten year two dental students working in a phantom-heads skills laboratory and 16-year five dental students attending a comprehensive care clinic piloted both peer DOPS forms. After training, pairs of students observed, assessed and provided immediate feedback to each other using their respective peer DOPS forms as frameworks. At the end of the 3-month study period, students anonymously provided their perceptions of the protocol.
Year 2 and year 5 students completed 57 and 104 peer DOPS forms, respectively. The generalizability coefficient was 0.62 for year 2 (six encounters) and 0.67 for year 5 (seven encounters). Both groups were able to differentiate amongst peer-assessed domains and so detect improvement in peers' performance over time. Peer DOPS scores of both groups showed a positive correlation with their mean end-of-year examination marks (r ≥ 0.505, P ≥ 0.051) although this was not statistically significant. There was no difference (P ≥ 0.094) between the end-of-year examination marks of the participating students and the rest of their respective classes. The vast majority of both groups expressed positive perceptions of the piloted protocol.
There are no data in the literature on the prospective use of peer assessment in the dental undergraduate setting. In the current study, both pre-clinical and clinical students demonstrated the ability to identify those domains where peers performed better, as well as those which needed improvement. Despite no observable educational impact, most students reported positive perceptions of the peer DOPS protocol.
The results of this pilot study support the need for and the potential benefit of a larger- and longer-term follow-up study utilising the protocol.
同伴评估在健康教育中的应用日益广泛。本研究旨在评估本科临床前和临床牙科学生结构化和前瞻性同伴评估及同伴反馈方案的可靠性、准确性、教育影响以及学生的看法。
对两份程序技能直接观察（DOPS）表格进行修改，用于临床前和临床同伴评估。十名在模拟人头技能实验室工作的二年级牙科学生和十六名在综合护理诊所就诊的五年级牙科学生试用了这两种同伴DOPS表格。经过培训后，学生们成对观察、评估并使用各自的同伴DOPS表格作为框架相互提供即时反馈。在为期3个月的研究期结束时，学生们匿名提供了他们对该方案的看法。
二年级和五年级学生分别完成了57份和104份同伴DOPS表格。二年级（六次接触）的概化系数为0.62，五年级（七次接触）的概化系数为0.67。两组都能够区分同伴评估的领域，从而发现同伴表现随时间的改善。两组的同伴DOPS分数与他们的年终平均考试成绩呈正相关（r≥0.505，P≥0.051），尽管这在统计学上并不显著。参与研究的学生与各自班级其他学生的年终考试成绩没有差异（P≥0.094）。两组中的绝大多数学生对试用方案都表达了积极的看法。
文献中没有关于在牙科本科环境中前瞻性使用同伴评估的数据。在当前研究中，临床前和临床学生都表现出能够识别同伴表现较好的领域以及需要改进的领域。尽管没有观察到教育影响，但大多数学生对同伴DOPS方案报告了积极的看法。
这项试点研究的结果支持使用该方案进行更大规模、更长期随访研究的必要性和潜在益处。
