Principal Investigators: Mythily Srinivasan, Associate Professor, Oral Pathology, Medicine and Radiology, School of Dentistry; Twyla Rader, LDH, M.Ed. Program Director-Dental Hygiene,Indiana University School of Dentistry, Clinical Assistant Professor, tjbeaty@iu.edu
Project Title: Integrate case-based pathology in the curriculum to meet the needs of the present day and future professional dental hygienists.
Funding Level: $5000
Abstract: Dental hygienists play an integral role in assisting individuals and groups in achieving and maintaining optimal oral health. Thus, the dental hygiene educational guidelines recommended by the Commission on Dental Accreditation specify standards for general and oral pathology courses to provide knowledge base for critical and reflective thinking to evaluate, analyze and synthesize information and ideas to construct informed, meaningful, and justifiable conclusions. Currently, pathology education in the Dental Hygiene program at the Indiana University School of Dentistry relies on a teacher-delivered, lecture-based curriculum that likely promotes surface learning/memorization rather than deep learning and critical thinking. With the increasing demand and responsibilities of dental hygienists, we need to impart pathology education through curriculum that promotes in-depth understanding of oral diseases and develop analytical thinking skills for application in clinical care. This grant will support redesigning of the undergraduate pathology curriculum for the Dental Hygiene program in both curricular and pedagogical terms. We are proposing to revise and restructure the existing curriculum to a new blended-learning course that will combine traditional and nontraditional methodologies, whereby students will engage in both limited face-to-face classroom sessions and web-based learning modules and activates. The proposed project will be assessed by multiple approaches including student surveys, analysis of pre-and post-intervention student assessment data and faculty course review. Preliminary data of the proposed intervention will be collected over the course of one academic year and findings will be disseminated locally at the Curriculum Enhancement Grant Symposium and nationally at the American Dental Education Association Annual Session.
