METHODS: All second-year undergraduate Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students were invited to participate in a TBL-CBL session. These participants were randomly allocated to six different groups of 10-12 students, and the session was conducted by one lecturer as the facilitator. A 23-item questionnaire assessing four domains (perceptions of effectiveness, teacher, team interaction and learning environment) was administered at the end of the TBL-CBL session.

RESULTS: The response rate was 91.9% (n = 68). Mean scores for the questionnaire items ranged from 4.13 to 4.60 suggesting a positive perception among the students towards the hybrid TBL-CBL approach. Regarding the open-response questions, students emphasised that the TBL-CBL session was effective for team interaction and group discussions. However, students wished to have a better venue for future sessions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This quality improvement project was undertaken at a private university. Guided by the PDSA model, rubber dam application tasks were conducted in the simulation lab in 2 phases. Phase 1 included TBSL and phase 2 included EBSL comprising of 2 PDSA cycles. 'Plan' stage involved obtaining feedback from students and the concerned staff. 'Do' stage included implementation of EBSL in eight steps adopted from Higgins's framework. 'Study' stage evaluated the outcomes and in 'Act' stage amendments were made to the first EBSL cycle. In the second PDSA cycle re-implementation and evaluation of the rubber dam application exercises were carried out. Descriptive data were presented as percentages and mean scores were compared using paired t-test.

METHODS: The programme was developed as a student-centred, collaborative approach to achieve the learning outcomes for dental and chiropractic students. Second-year dental students (n = 46) and chiropractic students (n = 23) in their fourth year participated in the programme. The focus of the programme was to address the prevention of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) amongst dental students and to provide the chiropractic students with the opportunity to assess and identify risk factors for WMSDs in the dental setting. The readiness for interprofessional learning scale (RIPLS) questionnaire was completed prior to the interprofessional education programme and once again afterwards to determine dental and chiropractic students' awareness of roles and responsibilities of the other profession, and their attitudes to interprofessional education and teamwork.

RESULTS: Dental and chiropractic students showed similar levels of readiness for shared learning. The results of this study suggest that the IPL programme contributed to the development of the students' positive perceptions towards the positive professional identity and the roles of other healthcare professionals.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: An audit checklist with 13 criteria for good documentation was adapted from guidelines proposed by the American Association of Orthodontists and British Orthodontic Society. Orthodontic chart documentation in 103 removable appliance therapy patients under 4th and 5th year dental undergraduates' care was retrieved from the electronic record of the University dental clinic and audited. The audit exercise explored in detail the thirteen criteria for good documentation and eight assessment attributes of the first criterion, namely, basic orthodontic examination. The level of compliance was measured as the percentage records meeting the criteria. The data were statistically analysed using SPSS 26.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).

RESULTS: There was no complete compliance for any of the criteria. Thirty-five (33.9%) patient charts reported basic orthodontic examination documentation adequately. Compliance was the highest for documentation of treatment modality (77.6%), appliance delivery encounters (77.6%), and appliance adjustment appointments (83.5%). About 51.4% of the 68 patient charts (treatment of 35 patients of the total 103 were in the progress stage) stated adequately the outcome of treatment. Only 22% of the 68 patient charts had the details for retention protocol. There was statistically significant difference in chart documentation between male and female students for basic orthodontic assessment and appliance delivery and patient instructions attributes.

METHODS: Clinical audit learning was introduced in Year 3 of a 5-year curriculum for dental undergraduates. During classroom activities, students were briefed on clinical audit, selected their audit topics in groups of 5 or 6 students, and prepared and presented their audit protocols. One chosen topic was RCT, in which 3 different cohorts of Year 3 students conducted retrospective audits of patients' records in 2012, 2014 and 2015 for their compliance with recommended record keeping criteria and their performance in RCT. Students were trained by and calibrated against an endodontist (κ ≥ 0.8). After each audit, the findings were reported in class, and recommendations were made for improvement in performance of RCT and record keeping. Students' compliance with published guidelines was presented and their RCT performances in each year were compared using the chi-square test.

RESULTS: Overall compliance with of record keeping guidelines was 44.1% in 2012, 79.6% in 2014 and 94.6% in 2015 (P = .001). In the 2012 audit, acceptable extension, condensation and the absence of mishap were observed in 72.4, 75.7% and 91.5%; in the 2014 audit, 95.1%, 64.8% and 51.4%; and in 2015 audit, 96.4%, 82.1% and 92.8% of cases, respectively. In 2015, 76.8% of root canal fillings met all 3 technical quality criteria when compared to 48.6% in 2014 and 44.7% in 2012 (P = .001).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Master of Science postgraduate students in endodontics, prosthodontics, periodontics, oral surgery and implantology participated in a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study. The dental specialties were further categorised into restorative and surgical dentistry. A multiple-choice questionnaire with three clinical cases was distributed to the students. Data were analysed for trends using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: There was a 44% response rate; the majority of respondents were from restorative dentistry specialties. Cases 1 and 2 were rated as moderate to high difficulty, and Case 3 was predominantly rated as high difficulty with procedure predictability being the main factor affecting their clinical decision-making in three cases. Endodontic retreatment was selected as the preferred treatment in Cases 1 and 2 and periradicular surgery in Case 3. The students were fairly confident in managing Cases 1 and 2, but not in Case 3. Referral patterns were consistent in Cases 1 and 2 with endodontists being the first choice of referral except for Case 3 where 48% preferred to refer to oral surgeons and 35% choosing endodontists. Some indication of differences between specialties were noted throughout. Years in practice appeared to be related to the importance of predictability in Case 3 only.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 72 s-year dental students, who attended preclinical fixed prosthodontic training. Participants were randomly segregated into conventional teaching (n = 36) and blended learning (n = 36). All participants were evaluated for learning preferences using Visual-Aural-Read/Write-Kinesthetic (VARK) questionnaire and performed a project as their baseline skill assessment. They performed another two preclinical projects (easy and difficult level) after the allocated teaching approach. Learning preferences were analysed using Fisher's exact test and performance in preclinical projects were analysed with an independent t test (significant at p  .05) between groups. No significant differences found between both teaching approaches for easy (p = .319) and difficult projects (p = .339). In the blended learning group, no significant difference was found in both difficulty level of projects (p = .064).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A descriptive analysis was carried out using Laurie Brady's four-stage strategy. First, available curriculum materials were collected from four different institutions' electronic webpage: AIMST (Malaysia), GU (Australia), UO (New Zealand) and CMU (United Kingdom), and then compared based on three key domains: curriculum contents, teaching and learning strategies and assessments. Following that, the similarities and differences between various curricula were identified. Future recommendations and a curriculum framework were then proposed.

RESULTS: The core BDT curriculum content is concurred upon by all four universities, with an emphasis on basic sciences, laboratory materials, practical sessions and research projects. However, the credit weightage for each course or module varied across the four institutions, with some offering unique subjects and implementing different teaching methods and assessments. A simple BDT curriculum framework with a proposed syllabus was designed based on the three key domains and future recommendations for curriculum improvement were explored.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, mapping of the physiology curriculum of three batches of BDS programme was conducted retrospectively. The components of the curriculum used for mapping were expected learning outcomes, curriculum content, learning opportunities, assessments and learning resources. The data were gathered by reviewing office records.

RESULTS: Descriptive analysis of the data revealed reasonable alignment between the curriculum content and questions asked in examinations for all three batches. It was found that all the expected learning outcomes were addressed in the curriculum and assessed in different assessments. Moreover, the study revealed that the physiology curriculum was contributing to majority of the programme outcomes. Nevertheless, the study could identify some gaps in the curriculum, as well.

METHODS: Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 233 undergraduate dental students involved with clinical teaching. This modified and validated questionnaire focusing on students' learning environment was used in order to gain relevant information related to dental clinical teaching. Six domains with different criteria applicable to clinical teaching in dentistry were selected consisting of modelling (four criteria), coaching (four criteria), scaffolding (four criteria), articulation (four criteria), reflection (two criteria) and general learning environment (six criteria). Data analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 20.

RESULTS: Majority of the students expressed positive perceptions on their clinical learning experience towards the clinical teachers in the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, in all criteria of the domains. Few negative feedbacks concerning the general learning environment were reported.

METHODS: An iterative e-Delphi technique was employed as the method for gathering consensus on a range of topics found pertinent to affect orthodontic teaching and learning established through literature review. A total of ten expert panellists were recruited through a targeted invitation to the orthodontists from Malaysian public universities offering undergraduate dental education. The e-Delphi comprised of three rounds of anonymous e-survey. The consensus was sought for two open-ended and two closed-ended questions.

RESULTS: The response rates for all the three rounds were 100 per cent. The total number of questions responded by the participants in all the three rounds was forty-four. Round one achieved consensus on two closed-ended questions. Round two achieved a consensus on twenty-eight out of thirty-four (82.35%) questions with round three achieving a consensus on four out of six (66.66%) questions. A 70% consensus was considered as the minimum level of agreement for all the rounds. In total, consensus and agreement were achieved on two closed-ended questions and twenty-nine items from the open-ended questions.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A literature search identified pre-existing measures and models for the assessment of attitudes in healthcare students. Adaptation of three pre-existing scales was undertaken, and a new scale was developed based upon the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) using an elicitation survey. These scales underwent a process of content validation. The three adapted scales and the TPB scale were piloted by 130 students at 5 different professional stages, from 4 different countries.

RESULTS: The scales were adjusted to ensure good internal reliability, variance, distribution, and face and content validity. In addition, the different scales showed good divergent validity.

DISCUSSION: These results are positive, and the scales now need to be validated in the field.

METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, 30 undergraduate dental students were shown a CEREC demonstration video. Each operator then captured a digital impression using the intra-oral scanner, and a crown was subsequently milled. All participants underwent a training course before repeating the process. Marginal discrepancy for each crown on its abutment tooth was measured before and after training using a stereomicroscope and was evaluated using Wilcoxon signed rank test. The duration taken for the process was recorded before and after training and evaluated using paired t-test.

METHODS: Fifty-four dental students enrolled in 2018 were recruited as participants and assigned to two groups. Both groups were given the same lecture and asked to watch the same video in either the enhanced or non-enhanced version. The enhanced video was modified with the contemporaneous subtitle of the presenters' dialogue, text bullet points and summary text pages. The knowledge acquisition from the two types of video was subjected to pre- and post-tests one month after the students watched the video. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the students' perceptions of the learning experience and a performance test on practical skills was performed after six weeks. All the students responded to the test (100%).

METHODS: A draft set of EPA statements was developed based on the consensus of an expert panel. These were then mapped to the nationally determined minimum experience thresholds (clinical and procedural experiences/competencies) and aligned to task-based instructional strategy. The EPAs were validated to improve the relevance by using a criterion-based rubric.

RESULTS: An end-to-end process workflow led to the development of an EPA-based educational framework to bridge the gaps in the curriculum. The process identified a total of 41 EPAs and out of which, 10 EPAs were notated as core EPAs and will be subjected to structured workplace-based assessment complying to the national standards. The validation exercise rated core EPAs with an overall score matching close to the cut-off of 4.07 (Equal rubric).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Dundee Polyprofessionalism Inventory I: Academic Integrity questionnaire was administered to BDS students of a private dental institution in Malaysia. Differences in the level of recommended sanctions were assessed by Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis test.

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted using validated modified-communication tools; Patient Communication Assessment Instruments (PCAI), Student Communication Assessment Instruments (SCAI) and Clinical Communication Assessment Instruments (CCAI) which included four communication domains. One hundred and seventy-six undergraduate clinical year students were recruited in this study whereby each of them was assessed by a clinical instructor and a randomly selected patient in two settings: Dental Health Education (DHE) and Comprehensive Care (CC) clinic.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study included final-year undergraduate dental students (N = 645) who completed a pre-tested self-administered questionnaire that analysed the domains of perceived knowledge, practice, critical appraisal and attitude towards evidence-based dentistry. We further explored the association between these domains with the type of curriculum, sex, prior research experience and EBD training.