By Janet Hulstrand
At the University of
Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine (Pitt SDM) a
variety of initiatives encourage students to make a habit of self-directed
learning.
"Dentistry can be a very solitary profession,” says Zsuzsa
Horvath, Ph.D.,
Assistant Professor in Pitt SDM’s Department of Dental Public Health and
Director of Faculty Development in the Office of Faculty Affairs. “Once the
students get out of school, many times they are in private practices where they
are working alone. They may have a partner, or they may even be in a group
practice, but even so, they really have to depend on themselves to continue to develop
their knowledge and skills after they’re out of school.”
To
prepare students for a lifetime of continuous learning, Pitt SDM builds the
ability to engage in self-assessment into every aspect of the curriculum. “Students
get accustomed to evaluating their own performance, and comparing that to
faculty assessment of their performance,” says Joseph
Ambrosino, M.S., M.P.M., D.M.D., FAGD, Instructor in the
Department of Dental Public Health and Director of the University of Pittsburgh School of
Dental Medicine Continuing Dental Education Center. “When
that assessment differs, it can be an opportunity for them to learn how to
objectively and accurately assess their competencies, and discover areas for
improvement.” These skills, he stresses, can be very important later in their
careers.
Pitt
SDM places a strong emphasis on continuing education (CE) as well. Starting in
their first year, all students are required to attend one in-person CE course
and one online CE course annually. “It is hoped that this exposure to
continuing education will help foster a basis for lifelong learning,” Dr.
Ambrosino says.
The
dental school also provides students with the incentive of being able to take additional
CE courses on a variety of topics offered throughout the year at no additional cost—a
policy that also applies to newly minted dentists for the first two years after
they graduate. A requirement that students attend the annual American Student
Dental Association (ASDA) Steel City Dental Expo, at which an outside speaker
gives an educational presentation on a topic selected by the ASDA officers,
further underlines the notion that students should take advantage of CE
opportunities.
Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL™), another pedagogical
approach that engages students in self-directed learning at Pitt SDM, calls for
students within a larger classroom to work in small groups facilitated by an instructor.
The POGIL method is based on research confirming that students who are actively
engaged in an interactive learning environment are better able to retain
knowledge and take ownership of their own learning than they are when
information is delivered in a traditional lecture format.
“POGIL
emphasizes active learning through understanding, rather than memorization,” Dr.
Horvath explains. “This helps students organize new knowledge in a way that
facilitates retention and the ability to apply knowledge to real situations.”
In
the POGIL classroom, students work with highly structured materials and
interpret them using questions designed to both address course objectives and
help students reach their own valid conclusions. “The instructor’s role is to
monitor and facilitate the learning process by intervening to address students’
questions and to allow for the sharing of results across the groups within the
classroom,” Dr. Horvath says. “It helps students develop for themselves the
most important concepts being covered in the course.”
Pitt
SDM students also have had the opportunity to prepare for lifelong learning
through an innovative extracurricular offering, Writing for Healers, which draws
on the emerging discipline of narrative medicine. “A growing body of
research suggests that teaching reading and reflective writing can help
clinicians improve their ability to provide patient-centered care,” Dr. Horvath
says, adding, “After an interaction with a patient, you have to be able to
evaluate what went well, what you need to change next time, and so on. This kind
of reflection is a crucial component of lifelong learning.”
She
admits that some students are a bit resistant to reflecting on their practice at
first. “Especially in the first two years, they’re so overwhelmed with the
demands of the basic science curriculum that they don’t always see the value in
it. But we have them practice it even if at the moment it doesn’t seem the most
important thing to them. With time, they come to appreciate it.”
An
additional benefit of Pitt SDM’s pervasive emphasis on self-directed learning
is that some students enjoy the process so much they develop an interest in
pursuing academic dental careers. (The school has a program for those students as
well.) Meanwhile, all Pitt SDM students benefit because they are likely to find
their careers more rewarding—no matter which path they choose—if they continue
to engage in learning throughout the years.
Dr.
Horvath refers to the case of a colleague who practices dentistry full time and
teaches at Pitt SDM one day a week. “She says for her it’s like a weekly CE
course built into her life. She sees students and residents, sees what they’re
doing, bounces ideas back and forth with colleagues. She feels like this really
enriches her professional life.”