Dental students' ability to evaluate themselves in fixed prosthodontics.

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Self-Assessment
• Professional Development

Background:

• Self-evaluation is crucial for dental professionals' continuous learning.
• Developing self-assessment skills is vital for career-long improvement in dentistry.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare self-assigned grades with faculty grades among dental students in a preclinical fixed prosthodontics course.
• To investigate the relationship between academic performance and self-evaluation accuracy in dental students.

Main Methods:

• Dental students undergoing a preclinical fixed prosthodontics course were studied.
• Students self-graded their performance on a timed preparation examination (teeth preparations and provisional restorations).
• Student self-grades were compared against faculty-assigned grades.

Main Results:

• Poorer performing students tended to overestimate their performance and be less critical.
• Higher performing students were more self-critical and tended to underestimate their performance.
• A discrepancy exists between self-perception and objective performance in preclinical dental education.

Conclusions:

• Accurate self-evaluation skills are not consistently developed in preclinical dental students.
• Interventions may be needed to improve dental students' ability to accurately assess their own performance.
• Enhancing self-assessment accuracy is important for fostering lifelong learning in dental professionals.