Jones Tobie Ann
Assistant Professor of Restorative Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Oregon Health & Science University.
J Dent Educ. 2019 Jan;83(1):88-93. doi: 10.21815/JDE.019.011.
The use of collaboration while in dental school can help prepare dental students for the team-oriented nature of the workforce. One way to do this is via collaborative group testing (CGT), a method of assessment allowing students to learn from one another. The aim of this study was to examine the CGT method in a predoctoral dental education setting to determine if student examination performance improved with the addition of collaboration and if collaborative testing was beneficial to students' learning process. In 2016, all first-year dental students (n=76) at one U.S. dental school were assessed in an introductory comprehensive care course using a two-stage CGT in which students were assessed individually, prior to taking the same test in collaboration with an assigned partner. Three quizzes and a final examination were given in which student participants served as both control (individual assessments) and treatment (collaborative assessment). At the conclusion of the course, a questionnaire was administered to ascertain student perspectives. All assessments yielded favorable results with an overall score improvement from a mean of 81.1% on individual assessments to 91% on collaborative assessments (p=0.001), indicating that collaboration improved assessment outcomes. Additionally, retention of material was suggested with individual scores on the cumulative final surpassing average individual scores of the preceding quizzes (p<0.001). Students' responses on the questionnaire indicated that they perceived implementation of CGT was beneficial to their learning process. With these results, this testing methodology shows promise to enhance dental student learning, material retention, and teamwork.
在牙科学院期间采用协作方式有助于让牙科学生为劳动力队伍的团队导向性质做好准备。一种实现这一目标的方法是通过协作小组测试（CGT），这是一种评估方法，能让学生相互学习。本研究的目的是在博士前牙科教育环境中检验CGT方法，以确定增加协作后学生的考试成绩是否提高，以及协作测试是否对学生的学习过程有益。2016年，美国一所牙科学院的所有一年级牙科学生（n = 76）在一门综合护理入门课程中接受评估，采用两阶段CGT，即学生先单独接受评估，然后与指定的伙伴合作进行相同测试。共进行了三次小测验和一次期末考试，学生参与者既作为对照组（个人评估），也作为实验组（协作评估）。课程结束时，发放了一份问卷以了解学生的看法。所有评估都产生了良好的结果，总体分数从个人评估的平均81.1%提高到协作评估的91%（p = 0.001），表明协作提高了评估结果。此外，累积期末考试的个人成绩超过了之前小测验的个人平均成绩，这表明学生对知识的掌握有所提高（p < 0.001）。学生在问卷上的回答表明，他们认为实施CGT对他们的学习过程有益。基于这些结果，这种测试方法有望提高牙科学生的学习效果、知识掌握程度和团队协作能力。
