A systematic literature review of assessment feedback in preclinical dental education

Development of evaluative judgement abilities through assessment and feedback strategies is crucial in students' progress to become self-regulated lifelong learners. Dentists' ability to appraise the quality of treatment provided to their patients starts with development of competences in a simulated preclinical training environment. However, the effectiveness of these assessment and feedback strategies is not well understood.

This literature review aimed to identify the assessment and feedback interventions and their effect on dental students' appraisal and psychomotor skills during preclinical training. A search of the electronic databases PubMed, Ebscohost (Dentistry and Oral Health), Scopus, Web of Science and EMBASE was conducted of studies published until October 2019.

Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria. Two studies were randomised controlled trials and ten non-randomised studies. All studies included students' self-assessment and grading criteria as part of their feedback interventions. Feedback utilisation training was reported in 66% of the included studies. Evidence suggests feedback strategies improve psychomotor skills and increase agreement between students' and teachers' awarded grades. However, these improvements vary with the complexity of the task. Only one study shows self-directed learning significantly contributing to students' psychomotor skill improvement.

Although assessment and feedback are regarded as crucial for developing students' evaluative judgement capabilities to become self-regulated lifelong learners, there is limited empirical evidence of the assessment and feedback conditions that enhance students' judgement abilities, performance and self-regulation. Further research is needed to investigate and compare the effect of different assessment and feedback interventions on students' appraisal skills, their impact on learning and self-regulation.