The use of affective assessment to plan and evaluate instructional changes.

Affective assessment has been used extensively in dental education to gain valuable information from student attitudes; however, it has rarely been used as an instrument for systematically evaluating courses in order to plan instructional changes. In this investigation, affective assessment was used to plan and subsequently evaluate instructional changes in a restorative dentistry laboratory course. Affective assessment was used initially to determine attitudes concerning the laboratory course as well as the effect of an experimental program conducted during the course. Based on that assessment, changes were made in the course and the experimental program. Affective assessment was again employed the following year to determine the effect of the instructional and methodological changes. This study serves as a model for dental educators who would like to employ a systematic and practical approach to planning and evaluating instructional change through affective assessment.