Beliefs of dental faculty and students about effective clinical teaching behaviors

Both faculty and students in the College of Dentistry at The Ohio State University participated in a study to identify their beliefs about what clinical instructors should do to be effective and efficient teachers. In the first stage of a two-stage study, dental faculty members were asked to write out in as much detail as possible what things they believed clinical instructors should do when teaching. Similarly, junior and senior dental students were asked to describe what clinical instructor behaviors they believed enhanced their learning. All the descriptions were read and summarized, and a checklist of the behaviors was constructed. In the second stage both faculty and students were asked to respond to the importance of each behavior. The responses were factor analyzed, and the most important specific behaviors were identified. Five of the factors seem to describe dimensions of teaching of special importance for dental clinical faculty.