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Successful Use of Strategic Questioning in the Dental Outpatient Clinic: A Pilot Study
Erin M Davis1, Alia Eldairi2, M Elise McClanahan3
1Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology, School of Medicine, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA.
Objectives:
To meet Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) accreditation standards and to promote critical thinking in students; clinical faculty can improve their questioning strategies by incorporating higher-level action words from the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy. However, clinical faculty may be unfamiliar with this educational pedagogy. Therefore, we developed teaching instruments, including a training module and pocket reference card that efficiently explain strategic questioning and provide dental-specific examples of higher-level questioning prompts to use in the busy clinical setting. We aimed to assist dental faculty in incorporating higher-level action words into their questioning to best engage dental students in deep, critical thinking.
Methods:
Dental faculty (n = 15) completed an online teaching module that covered Bloom's Taxonomy action words and strategic questioning techniques, with dental-clinic specific prompts and questions provided. For three days in the clinic, dental faculty practiced strategic questioning techniques and were given an easy-to-use pocket-sized reference card for strategic questioning reminders. Following the clinic session, a questionnaire was emailed to faculty.
Results:
Overall, all respondents (n = 8) agreed that learners benefit from the use of strategic questioning in the clinic; however, they noted that the clinic is a difficult location to teach (limited time with students, busy environment, limited availability to tools/materials). All faculty observed that using strategic questioning in the clinic prompted students to engage in more critical thinking when answering. Regarding the teaching tools, 75% (n = 6) of faculty members agreed that the training module was helpful to learn about strategic questioning and 87.5% (n = 7) agreed that the module was an effective tool to learn new teaching strategies.
Conclusions:
With the use of training modules and pocket cards, strategic questioning can be introduced and implemented into a busy clinical dental setting to encourage higher levels of critical thinking in our student learners.
