Agreement between faculty member assessments and student self-assessments in a preclinical endodontic programme

This study aimed to evaluate the agreement between faculty member assessments and student self-assessments regarding the latter's performance in a preclinical endodontic course. The data were collected from 30 undergraduate dental students enrolled in a preclinical endodontic course at Taibah University in Saudi Arabia during 2017-2018 academic year. One course coordinator calibrated the grading method and distributed it to all staff and students. Students were asked to appraise their own performance of a root canal treatment for a tooth with a single canal. After the student self-assessments, two staff members also graded student performance using the same grading scale. The assessment agreement was compared between student and faculty evaluations using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test with a 0.05 significance level. There was a significant difference (P < 0.05) between student and staff member assessment scores. Student scores were lower and had a weak reliability compared to those of staff members.