From Matriculation to Graduation: Examining Critical Thinking Development and Academic Success in Dental School

Critical thinking (CT) skills are key to the success of healthcare professionals due to a high demand for clinical judgment and cognitive reasoning when delivering optimal care for patients. This study aimed to investigate the development of dental students' CT skills during matriculation using the Health Sciences Reasoning Test (HSRT) resulting in an overall score and eight unique sub-category CT skills scores.

This retrospective cross-sectional cohort study measured the relationship between CT skills and academic outcomes like Grade Point Average (GPA), critical reflection essay (CR) scores, and 4-year cumulative program learning outcome scores (PLO) percent scores for nine dental cohorts at five distinct time junctures. The HSRT_Entry (N = 271), HSRT_D1 (N = 329), HSRT_D2 (N = 392), HSRT_D3 (N = 234), HSRT_D4 (N = 318) were compared with T-Test for Dependent means with p≤0.05 for attempts. Pearson correlations were completed for each with academic performance measures like DAT_AA, Entering_GPA, Year 1 GPA, Year 2 GPA, CR scores, and PLOs in three competency areas including CT. Multiple linear regression with p ≤ 0.05 was completed for HSRT_D1 as predictor and Year 2 GPA as dependent.

T-Test Dependent Means showed significant increases each for HSRT_Entry-HSRT_D1-HSRT_D2 and significant declines for HSRT_D2-HSRT_D4 while HSRT_Entry correlated significantly with DAT_AA, HSRT_D1 and HSRT_D2 correlated with Years 1 and Year 2 GPAs, Year 2 CR scores, and HSRT_D4 with PLOs. HSRT_D1 was significantly associated with Year 2 GPA as a predictor.

CT skills were developed in this study during the dental program and correlated significantly with academic and performance measures signifying the importance of dental student performance.