| JUNE 2008 |
| Volume 1, Issue 1 |
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Welcome to the first edition of the ADEA CCI Liaison Ledger. ADEA is committed to providing ADEA CCI liaisons with the resources they need to be effective change agents at their campuses. One way to do this is to provide, in an efficient and effective manner, the tools and networking resources to enhance professional development across a wide range of skills and topics. The ADEA CCI Liaison Ledger is designed to provide Liaisons with concise, up-to-date information on new activities, current events, and cutting-edge tools that impact the dental education community. As we fine tune our efforts, we also want Liaisons to submit their own articles to be included in the Ledger. This gives Liaisons and colleagues at their campuses an opportunity to share experiences and learn from each other. In this first edition, we have highlighted some sessions from the 85th ADEA Annual Session, held in Dallas, Texas. There were a record number of attendees at the meeting, including Liaisons from almost every dental school. ADEA CCI Liaisons' Meeting
in Chicago President Bataille gave the opening remarks at the first Liaison session at the ADEA Annual Session in Dallas. She opened with a proverb that states, "When planning a year ahead, plant grain; when planning for ten years ahead, plant trees; and when planning fifty years into the future, educate the people." She stressed that the health of a society - indeed, the health of this country - is dependent on educated citizens. Healthy societies are optimistic about the future and willing to invest in it. Universities have the tools to make this happen, and the benefits are long lasting. She also noted that in a democracy, education is the vehicle for individual growth and community progress. Ninety percent of the fastest growing jobs in our country require some college education, she stated. Yet the United States is behind seven countries in the percentage of young adults (aged 25-34) with a college degree. As the guardians and providers of accessible and affordable higher education (and thus the guarantors of a community's prosperous future), public universities must do more to reach out and ensure that everyone who wants a higher education has the opportunity to earn one, President Bataille asserted. Students in affluent districts, charter schools, and small, well-funded schools are familiar with SAT scores, AP courses, and the importance of GPAs. They and their families know how to fill out FAFSA. But not all students and their families know how to get into college, and even the best educated parents can underestimate the cost of college. It is incumbent on all of us to recognize the barriers we erect that hinder individual and economic growth, she said. Many dental and medical schools have summer enrichment programs and postbaccalaureate programs, such as Baylor College of Dentistry. Many UNT students have taken advantage of these programs and benefited from them. Texas A&M University and Baylor College of Dentistry are very supportive of predental students; UNT also benefits from excellent working relationships with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Dental Branch and the University of Texas Health Science Center at the San Antonio Dental School. President Bataille pointed out that partnerships are critical to providing opportunities for students who may not have considered dental school. Strong relationships with community colleges will help demonstrate a clear curricular path to success in dentistry. UNT is working on an memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a joint early admittance program with the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Dental School. UNT also has an agreement with Baylor College of Dentistry's postbaccalaureate program, where students chosen for the program from throughout the United States (although mostly from Texas) attend either school to complete 30 hours of additional coursework in biology and the social sciences. They also complete the DAT and additional coursework at Baylor. Eight of the 16 students this year chose to complete their work at UNT. This project has been going on for six years, and is one more way four-year institutions without dental schools can work with professional schools to make a difference. Another area of concern is educating young people of the rewards of service and small-town life, she said. Dental students often leave school with a large debt load and, even if they want to practice in an underserved area, they may feel compelled to practice where cosmetic dentistry and braces are more common than basic care. This speaks to the need for more support for students willing to practice in high-need areas. We know that students leave college and professional school with high debt because public education is no longer financed the way it once was, President Bataille pointed out. In 1970, higher education in Texas received 55.7% of annual state appropriations. In 2005, that percentage dropped to 16.15, and in 2008 the percentage is down to 14. Every public university has had to find ways to meet its financial requirements. Increasingly, public institutions must reconsider the roles of state funding, tuition, grants, and gifts. There are practical reasons to improve the quality of education and expand access, she continued. The American Council on Education's (ACE) research shows that increasing the country's average level of schooling by one year could increase economic growth by six to 15 percent, adding between $600 billion and $1.5 trillion to U.S. economic output. These are powerful data that speak to the importance of addressing education at all levels, from elementary school to professional programs. We must remove the disparities in the oral health of our population, address the shortage of dental school faculty, increase the number of minority providers, and draw dentists to practice in rural and underserved communities, President Bataille concluded. Former ADEA President James Q. Swift addressed the nation's needs in testimony before the U.S. Senate in February, and his voice is an important one for higher education to hear. The University of North Texas stands ready to partner with
you. Like many universities without dental schools, we can be a
pipeline—and we are ready to expand that mission. It is one way for
us to demonstrate the value of education in creating a more
prosperous future, not just in higher lifetime earnings for our
students but in creating a better world in which to
live. Since its launch in 2006, MedEdPORTAL has attracted both national and international recognition as a source of free, high-quality educational resources and a place for educators to receive recognition for their scholarly work. The partnership between ADEA and AAMC enables a higher degree of collaboration and integration between medicine and dentistry. Allowing medical and dental faculty to benefit from one another's knowledge, expertise, and excellence improves medical and dental education and, ultimately, patient care. MedEdPORTAL is a central repository of
peer-reviewed resources, graphics, tutorials, lab manuals,
assessment instruments, and faculty development materials, as well
as an inventory of virtual patient cases. This storehouse of
knowledge and tools, contributed to by faculty and students
throughout the world, is available free to other educators and
learners, thereby diminishing the need to duplicate valuable and
expensive-to-produce resources. While it's widely recognized that
educators have long invested time and intellectual capital creating
tools with which to teach, they do not always receive recognition
for doing so. By submitting materials to MedEdPORTAL, educators
receive rigorous peer review and feedback. If the materials are
accepted for publication in MedEdPORTAL, educators receive
recognition for their scholarship, which may be used to support
promotion and tenure decisions. To learn more about MedEdPORTAL,
visit www.adea.org/mededportal.
Dr. Behar-Horenstein stated that "the need to teach dental students how to develop and use critical thinking skills has been a dominant theme in dental education for more than a decade." However, she said, the ways faculty teach these skills and how students demonstrate these skills in didactic basic science courses and the predoctoral dental learning environments is less understood. Dr. Behar-Horenstein provided a list of questions faculty can ask themselves as a way to gauge if they are teaching critical thinking skills to their students. How often ... 1. Do I encourage students to explain or demonstrate what
they know? Encouraged by your answers to find out more? Liaisons may request a copy of the Critical Thinking Toolkit from Ms. Faduma Hayir at 202-289-7201 or hayirf@adea.org. |
In 2006, Dr. Gretchen M. Bataille became the
14th president of the University of North Texas (UNT) and the first
woman in the university’s 116-year history to hold the position of
CEO. Previously, Dr. Bataille served as the chief academic officer
at the 16-campus University of North Carolina system. The UNC system
is composed of the state’s 16 public universities that grant
baccalaureate and advanced degrees, including two medical schools
and schools of dentistry, pharmacy, public health and veterinary
schools. 
ADEA and the Association of American Medical
Colleges (AAMC) have formed a partnership that will allow AAMC to
expand its unique MedEdPORTAL teaching tools repository to include
dental education resources. The collaboration represents the first
time academic medicine and dentistry have come together to share
teaching resources across universities and throughout the world.
MedEdPORTAL, a collection of high-quality, peer-reviewed educational
resources submitted by medical educators, began accepting
submissions from dental professionals on April 15,
2008.
While there are many definitions of critical
thinking skills, Dr. Behar-Horenstein provided an overarching
definition: "Critical thinking is regarded as intellectually
engaged, skillful, and responsible thinking that facilitates good
judgment because it requires the application of assumptions,
knowledge, competence, and the ability to challenge one's own
thinking." She said it also requires the use of self-correction and
monitoring to judge the reasonableness of
thinking.|
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