App-Supported Assessment of Clinical Courses for Dental Students: Discrepancies between Self-Assessment and...

From a student's perspective, assessment plays a central role in education and is essential in a university setting. Developing accurate self-assessment, without over- or underestimating one's abilities, requires practice and is often misaligned with actual skills. This study examines the gap between student self-assessments and instructors' assessments in everyday dental courses, focusing on overestimation, underestimation, and accurate self-assessment.

The app "digital course organizer" for organization and assessment was used to compare self-assessment and instructor evaluation (student and teacher) for each day of patient treatment at a university hospital. Data were collected over four semesters from 309 students resulting in a total of 15312 dual assessments. These were analyzed for tendencies toward overestimation, underestimation, or neutral assessment. Discrepancies between student self-assessments and evaluations by instructors were examined across four key criteria i) quality of treatment; ii) support from the teaching doctor; iii) theoretical knowledge and iv) professional appearance and organization.

The statistical results across all assessments showed a predominantly neutral difference between the assessment outcomes of students and instructors. Further statistical analysis of the differences in assessment results between clinical courses showed no significant differences (p ≥ 0.128).

The results demonstrated a predominantly neutral correlation between students' self-assessments and the assessments provided by instructors in dental clinical courses. The findings indicate that students' self-assessments were largely aligned with those of the instructors, showing no significant discrepancies between student expectations and instructor assessment.