An evaluation system for preclinical and clinical endodontics

One of the most difficult tasks, facing the dental educator is the evaluation of students' preclinical and clinical performance. This article describes the development of an evaluation system that eliminates some of the problems associated with the assessment of psychomotor skills including rater subjectivity and the validity of evaluation instruments. The evaluation system discussed is currently being used by the Department of Endodontics at the Louisiana State University School of Dentistry for both preclinical and clinical endodontics. The article focuses on the development of the system, use of the clinical rating scale, and an assessment of the system's effectiveness.