Effective and Ineffective Clinical Teaching in Dental Hygiene Education: A Qualitative Study

Clinical instructors play a significant role in student learning in dental hygiene education, but more information is needed on which instructor characteristics best promote student development. The aim of this study was to identify clinical dental hygiene instructor traits that are effective and ineffective for student learning as defined by dental hygiene students and instructors. A qualitative study using grounded theory and critical incident technique was conducted to investigate junior students', senior students', and instructors' perceptions in one U.S. dental hygiene program in 2014. The methods used were an open-ended electronic survey, one-on-one interviews, and focus groups. Qualities identified were coded and organized into categories and themes, then tabulated by importance by cohort. A total of 24 junior students, 22 senior students, and nine clinical faculty members participated in all three parts of the study. The surveys revealed 322 qualities and characteristics, and the interviews revealed 162, which were then coded into 26 and 23 categories of effective and ineffective traits, respectively. Three major themes of instructor characteristics emerged: affective, pedagogical, and expertise-related. Variances in the frequency of these themes were found between junior and senior students. Differences were also noted between students and instructors in terms of the importance of several characteristics. Specific effective teaching methods were also discovered in the interviews. In this study, multiple effective and ineffective dental hygiene clinical instructor characteristics were identified. These findings have implications for curriculum, instructor training, and evaluation and create a foundation for future research.