Experienced general dental practitioners as clinical teachers: a qualitative study of their experience over the first three years as novice clinical teachers in an outreach setting

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

A concept of 'consciously incompetent' thereby allowing the student to seek their own answers in order to become independent reflective practitioners would chime with the aspiration of a clinical teacher to be a 'reflective observer'.

Main

Radford DR, Hellyer P et al. J Interdiscipl Med Dent Sci 2014; 2: 147 10.4172/jimds.1000147

Learning in dental outreach focuses on 1) personal development, 2) professional responsibility, 3) practice environment, and 4) enhancement of clinical skills (Br Dent J 2009; 207: 371–376). General dental practitioners should be pivotal in delivering these outcomes. But what pedagogical approach does a general dental practitioner adopt when assuming a role as a clinical teacher? This study employed an autoethnographic approach. In this study, themes were identified from each of three 7,000 word accounts of teaching practice as described by three new clinical teachers. Reflection was a theme that pervaded these observations but not only for students. For example, novice teachers' were becoming 'unconsciously competent' through reflection. Pragmatically, a clinical teacher should 'set up the relationship between the patient and the student and then stand back...'. The abstractor is brother to the first author.