Development and implementation of new educational concepts in a dental curriculum

The Academic Centre for Dentistry Amsterdam introduced a fully renewed 5-year dental curriculum in September 2003. In this article, the educational principles and didactic choices that form the basis of the curriculum development are presented and attention is given to the process of development and the implementation strategy that constitute such an important part of the success of introducing a new curriculum. Special characteristics of the new curriculum are the clinical training practice, professional conduct, the elective profiles and academic education. In clinical practice, groups of students from different levels run a group practice in which they learn to work together, delegate tasks, solve clinical problems and apply evidence-based dentistry. In the new curriculum students learn to conduct themselves as professionals. In the third and in the fifth year, students choose an elective profile oriented, respectively, on research and on clinical knowledge and skills. Academic education is an important spearhead in this curriculum in which students not only learn why research is important to dentistry but also how dentists can use research to their own benefit. In development and implementation, a stepwise approach was used in which as many people as logistically possible were involved.