Monitoring system for practical skills of the future gnathologist: Criteria and descriptors

Aim: Theoretical substantiation, development, and validation of a system of criteria and descriptors for monitoring the formation of professional practical skills of future gnathologists.

Materials and Methods: Theoretical and empirical methods were applied: a comprehensive analysis of scientific literature; comparative and generalisation methods for theoretical substantiation of systematic quality monitoring approaches; interviews with academic staff for criteria and descriptor elicitation; and a survey of gnathology specialists for problem identification and expert validation of the proposed system. We assessed the relative importance of each criterion on a 5-point scale using the following indicators: the expert competence coefficient, the generalised opinion score, the degree of consensus of opinions, and the statistical significance of the expert consensus coefficient.

Results: Four principal interdisciplinary integration domains relevant to gnathological training have been identified: anatomical-morphological, kinematicdynamic, system-functional, and clinical-diagnostic. A five-criterion monitoring system with four-level descriptors (basic, intermediate, advanced, and high) has been developed for each criterion: cognitive-analytical, diagnostic-interpretive, biomechanical-design, practical-operational, and prognostic-reflective. Expert evaluation confirmed the high validity of, and consensus on, the proposed system. Expert competence was assessed using the Kk coefficient (Kk=0.87). The degree of consensus was quantified via Kendall's concordance coefficient (W=0.8), with statistical significance verified by the Pearson chi-square test (χ2ₚ=28.97 > χ2ₜ=9.5; α=0.05).

Conclusions: The developed system of criteria and descriptors constitutes a methodological framework for comprehensive monitoring of the formation of practical skills in future gnathologists. The high level of expert consensus confirms the validity and practical applicability of the proposed system for improving dental education curricula.