(PO-081) Characteristics of Effective Clinical Teaching: A Scoping Review

Author: Kristin Z. Victoroff, D.D.S – Associate Professor of Community Dentistry, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine
Author: Mario Alemagno, D.D.S – Senior Instructor, Department of Comprehensive Care, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine
Submitter: Kristin Z. Victoroff, D.D.S – Associate Professor of Community Dentistry, Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine



Objectives: Clinical faculty play a critical teaching role in dental education. Identification of characteristics of effective clinical teaching can inform faculty development, faculty evaluation and institutional efforts to improve the quality of clinical education. The aim of this scoping review is to summarize the current literature on characteristics of effective clinical teaching in dental education.



Methods: A search to identify articles on characteristics of effective clinical teaching in dental education, published in English between 2000 and August 2020, was conducted in PubMed. The search yielded 979 articles. Two authors independently screened all article citations, and abstracts when necessary, using predetermined inclusion criteria, identified articles for full-text review (75) and determined the final articles to be included in the synthesis (29). For the twenty-nine included articles, two authors independently extracted key results from each article and grouped results into themes. At all steps disagreements between authors were resolved through discussion.



Results: The majority of the twenty-nine included articles were qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods studies. Study participants included students (dental and dental hygiene), clinical faculty (dental and dental hygiene) and dental education experts. Three distinct themes related to effective clinical teaching were identified: 1) Importance of personal, non-cognitive attributes of the clinical teacher (e.g. enthusiasm, approachability); 2) value of specific teaching strategies (e.g. giving feedback) and 3) impact of contextual factors on the student-teacher interaction (e.g. design of the clinical curriculum and/or clinic operational issues).



Conclusions: The results of this scoping review suggest that clinical teaching effectiveness depends on a combination of individual clinical teacher personal, non-cognitive attributes, teaching strategies utilized by individual clinical teachers, and contextual factors that can impact the student-teacher interaction. Program faculty and administrators should consider all three factors when determining how to optimize clinical teaching and learning within their program.