Use of Progress Testing in a UK Dental Therapy and Hygiene Educational Program

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Dental Hygiene Education
• Assessment Methods

Background:

• Progress testing offers longitudinal assessment of student knowledge development over time.
• It enables monitoring of knowledge growth through performance comparisons on successive tests.
• The study focuses on its application as a primary academic assessment tool for dental therapy and hygiene (DTH) students.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of progress testing on DTH students' academic performance.
• To assess the effectiveness of progress testing as the main assessment tool in a UK undergraduate DTH program.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from progress tests administered to 38 DTH students between 2015 and 2017.
• Each test comprised 100 single best answer multiple-choice questions with vignettes.
• Scoring included positive marks for correct answers, negative for incorrect, and zero for 'don't know' responses.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated significant growth in student knowledge across successive academic years.
• Observed the most substantial knowledge increase between Year 1 and Year 2.
• Noted a concurrent decrease in incorrect and 'don't know' responses as knowledge improved.

Conclusions:

• Progress testing shows merit as a valuable assessment tool for undergraduate DTH programs.
• The study highlights its potential for monitoring and fostering knowledge development.
• Further exploration of progress testing in DTH education is warranted despite implementation challenges.