Over the past decade, repeated calls have been made for curricular reform and innovation in dental education. The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) has endeavored to support change by developing curriculum guidelines and competency statements and holding a variety of meetings and conferences. In 2005, ADEA formed the ADEA Commission on Change and Innovation in Dental Education (ADEA CCI) to oversee and guide the Association’s educational change efforts. Dr. Stephen K. Young, Dean of the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry, is the Chair of the ADEA CCI Oversight Committee. Since the Commission’s establishment in 2005:
- Fifteen special ADEA CCI white papers have been published in the Journal of Dental Education, with four more anticipated. These white papers will be compiled and published in a bound monograph in spring 2009. These white papers will help to guide dental schools in their own change and innovation efforts.
- ADEA CCI engaged a special ADEA Council of Sections Task Force to create a new document reflecting current and emerging dental practice, with a particular focus on the educational goal of the predoctoral curriculum: the new general dentist. The Competencies for the New General Dentist document was approved by the ADEA House of Delegates on April 2, 2008. The ADEA Council of Sections Task Force is now working on curriculum guidelines that correspond to the recently passed competencies.
- A joint ADEA-Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) Task Force on Predoctoral Dental Education Standards submitted revised Predoctoral Dental Education Accreditation Standards to CODA. The Commission approved the circulation of the revised standards. Following a year of public review, the standards will be reviewed again at the July 2009 Commission meeting.
- Teams of ADEA CCI Liaisons have been appointed at nearly every U.S. and Canadian dental school. ADEA CCI works directly through these Liaisons as conduits for change. The ADEA CCI Liaisons met for their Second Annual Conference in Chicago, June 23-25, 2008. The conference focused on improving student assessment in dental education.
- An ADEA CCI Task Force on Assessment is at work to develop assessment methodologies for dental schools to correspond with new educational methodologies. In spring 2008, the Task Force on Assessment fielded a survey to all dental school course directors and academic deans examining the use of various student assessment methodologies. The findings of this research will appear in a JDE article in the coming months.
- ADEA CCI conducted the first dental school workplace environment survey early this year and received over 1,800 responses from dental school faculty. A recent JDE article analyzes the findings of this survey. (Please sign in as an ADEA member to follow the link.)
Other items of interest include additional resources for curricular change and publications about ADEA CCI.