Impact on Junior Faculty of Teaching Opportunities During Predoctoral Education: A Survey-Based Study

Dental schools have addressed full-time faculty shortages by utilizing part-time faculty and postdoctoral students as teachers. Studies have also shown that peer tutors in dental schools can be used effectively in addition to or in place of faculty, but there has been little research on whether the peer tutoring experience influences tutors to pursue academic careers. This study surveyed junior faculty at 60 U.S. dental schools about their predoctoral tutoring and teaching experiences. Data from 122 respondents were analyzed. The results indicated that more recent graduates had more peer tutoring opportunities available than those who graduated prior to the 1980s and that the teaching experiences influenced the respondents' decisions to pursue academic careers. Additionally, those peer tutoring programs that placed more responsibility on the peer tutors, signifying trust from the institution, were the most successful in influencing respondents' decisions to pursue academia. Finally, when comparing their predoctoral teaching experiences to faculty development of teaching skills at their current institutions, the majority of the respondents reported that the faculty development was better. However, the peer tutoring programs considered equal to or better than faculty development were more influential in stimulating participants' academic career interest. These results suggest that dental schools can look to peer tutoring and teaching programs to stimulate students' interest in academia that can help reduce faculty shortages in the long term, but only if programs are developed that place greater responsibility and trust in students and that equal the quality of faculty development programs.