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Misconceptions amongst dental students: How can they be identified?
R Grazziotin-Soares1, S L Lind2, D M Ardenghi3
1Department of Conservative Dentistry, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Summary
Dental students exhibit overconfidence in incorrect answers, with misconceptions varying by subject and question type. Scenario-based questions in endodontics revealed more misconceptions than factual ones.
Area of Science:
- Dental Education Research
- Cognitive Science in Learning
- Assessment and Evaluation in Health Professions Education
Background:
- Dental students often hold misconceptions, or strongly held incorrect beliefs, impacting their learning and clinical practice.
- Multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are common assessment tools, but their effectiveness in revealing misconceptions can vary.
- Understanding how subject matter and question format influence misconception frequency is crucial for improving dental education.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the frequency of dental student misconceptions across different subject areas (endodontics, dental implants).
- To investigate whether misconception frequency differs based on multiple-choice question (MCQ) type (scenario vs. factual-based).
- To analyze student confidence levels associated with incorrect responses.
Main Methods:
- 104 dental students completed two assessments with 20 MCQs each on endodontics and dental implants.
- Each assessment included 10 scenario-type and 10 factual-based knowledge questions.
- Incorrect responses and confidence levels were recorded to compare misconceptions by question type and subject.
Main Results:
- Students demonstrated high confidence (75%) in their incorrect responses across both assessments and question types.
- A statistically significant higher number of misconceptions were found in scenario questions compared to knowledge questions for endodontics.
- A weak relationship was observed between misconceptions in scenario and knowledge questions for both endodontics and dental implants.
Conclusions:
- Overconfidence in incorrect responses is a consistent finding among dental students, irrespective of question type or subject.
- MCQs prompting a higher percentage of incorrect responses are more effective in detecting student misconceptions.
- Assessment design should consider question type to accurately identify and address student misconceptions in dental education.
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