Unveiling Dental Students' Baseline Self-Regulated Learning Skills During an Authentic Diagnostic Reasoning Task

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Cognitive Science
• Dental Education

Background:

• Self-regulated learning (SRL) is crucial for developing diagnostic reasoning skills in dental students.
• Effective assessment tools are needed to evaluate baseline SRL and diagnostic reasoning in authentic clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• Cross-culturally adapt and validate the Self-Regulated Learning Microanalytic Assessment (SRL-MA) and Assessment of Reasoning Tool-Reconstructed (ART-R) for dental students.
• Examine the relationship between SRL skills and diagnostic reasoning performance.
• Explore SRL processes during clinical diagnostic reasoning.

Main Methods:

• Mixed-methods design involving fourth-year dental students during surgery rotations.
• Utilized SRL-MA for planning, monitoring, and self-evaluation; ART-R for diagnostic reasoning assessment.
• Employed quantitative (descriptive statistics, correlations, SEM) and qualitative (thematic analysis) approaches.

Main Results:

• Adapted SRL-MA and ART-R demonstrated validity and reliability for assessing dental students.
• Task satisfaction correlated with post-task self-efficacy; diagnosis prioritization linked to overall reasoning performance.
• Students exhibited varied SRL, often using non-specific strategies and relying on supervisor feedback for self-assessment.

Conclusions:

• The SRL-MA and ART-R offer valuable, complementary insights into dental students' SRL and diagnostic reasoning.
• Students' dependence on external cues and limited strategic self-regulation underscore the need for faculty development in clinical supervision.
• Enhanced faculty training should focus on explicit SRL support within diagnostic reasoning tasks.