DESCRIBING THE PROBLEM CONTEXT
The Associate in Science Degree in Dental Hygiene at Moreno Valley College, Moreno Valley, CA, is a two-year program available to students whom have completed the required prerequisite classes. A registered dental hygienist (RDH) is a licensed health care professional, oral health educator, and clinician who, as a co-therapist with the dentist, provides preventive, educational, and therapeutic services supporting total health for the control of oral diseases and the promotion of oral health (ADHA). Current dental hygiene education and accreditation standards mandating that “graduates be competent in critical thinking and problem solving related to comprehensive care” reflect a genuine need to enrich students’ preparation in critical thinking and decision- making (Behar-Horenstein, 2006).
Much of today’s curricula have emphasized memory rather than understanding. Students are expected to memorize facts and most tests assess the student’s ability to remember the facts learned rather than understanding the information (Bransford et al, 2000, pg. 8). This may have allowed a student to be successful when taking one or two prerequisite classes but when the student is taking 16 units per semester as in our program knowledge of a large set of disconnected facts is not sufficient. Memorization occurs when the learner makes little or no effort to relate new information to existing knowledge or situations. Students in the dental hygiene program will require more than memorization skills; they will need to know how to think, how to make decisions, how to learn, and how to apply knowledge in a variety of contexts. Skills such as the ability to listen and communicate, the capacity to think critically, evaluate situations, solve problems, and make decisions are identified by our program as desirable skills for students to be successful.
As the dental hygiene teaching staff continues to assess student learning, results of assessments and evaluations indicate areas for further development and growth. Specifically, gaps in the students’ ability to transfer their classroom learning and apply these skills and knowledge within the clinical environment. This is demonstrated when the students are unable to recall simple concepts and the faculty are required to repeatedly help the students’ with the thought process when seeing patients in the clinical setting. Curricular evaluations and assessments indicate students are learning the course material, however, the performance of these same students when evaluated within the clinical environment shows decreased levels of their skills, knowledge and application to the patient.
The need to support development of transferable knowledge in the curriculum by improving educational strategies beyond the traditional techniques continues to be stressed (Whipp, 2000). The program competencies for entry into dental hygiene incorporate the need for dental hygienist to be effective critical thinkers, however, implementation of critical thinking design, in didactic courses, to encourage good clinical judgment is limited.
How do students learn best? Do students learn better when someone tells them exactly how to do something, or do they learn better by doing it themselves? Many people are right in the middle of those two scenarios. This has led many educators to believe that the best way to learn is having students construct their own knowledge instead of having someone construct it for them. The Constructivist Learning Theory states that learning is an active process of creating meaning from different experiences. In other words, students will learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own facilitated by the teacher as a guide to help them along the way.
Research Question
Will designing a constructivist learning environment providing the student with activities that allow them to collaborate and utilize the information being presented in class, that incorporates social and situated learning methodologies, help them increase their understanding so they can apply their knowledge in patient care?
Much of today’s curricula have emphasized memory rather than understanding. Students are expected to memorize facts and most tests assess the student’s ability to remember the facts learned rather than understanding the information (Bransford et al, 2000, pg. 8). This may have allowed a student to be successful when taking one or two prerequisite classes but when the student is taking 16 units per semester as in our program knowledge of a large set of disconnected facts is not sufficient. Memorization occurs when the learner makes little or no effort to relate new information to existing knowledge or situations. Students in the dental hygiene program will require more than memorization skills; they will need to know how to think, how to make decisions, how to learn, and how to apply knowledge in a variety of contexts. Skills such as the ability to listen and communicate, the capacity to think critically, evaluate situations, solve problems, and make decisions are identified by our program as desirable skills for students to be successful.
As the dental hygiene teaching staff continues to assess student learning, results of assessments and evaluations indicate areas for further development and growth. Specifically, gaps in the students’ ability to transfer their classroom learning and apply these skills and knowledge within the clinical environment. This is demonstrated when the students are unable to recall simple concepts and the faculty are required to repeatedly help the students’ with the thought process when seeing patients in the clinical setting. Curricular evaluations and assessments indicate students are learning the course material, however, the performance of these same students when evaluated within the clinical environment shows decreased levels of their skills, knowledge and application to the patient.
The need to support development of transferable knowledge in the curriculum by improving educational strategies beyond the traditional techniques continues to be stressed (Whipp, 2000). The program competencies for entry into dental hygiene incorporate the need for dental hygienist to be effective critical thinkers, however, implementation of critical thinking design, in didactic courses, to encourage good clinical judgment is limited.
How do students learn best? Do students learn better when someone tells them exactly how to do something, or do they learn better by doing it themselves? Many people are right in the middle of those two scenarios. This has led many educators to believe that the best way to learn is having students construct their own knowledge instead of having someone construct it for them. The Constructivist Learning Theory states that learning is an active process of creating meaning from different experiences. In other words, students will learn best by trying to make sense of something on their own facilitated by the teacher as a guide to help them along the way.
Research Question
Will designing a constructivist learning environment providing the student with activities that allow them to collaborate and utilize the information being presented in class, that incorporates social and situated learning methodologies, help them increase their understanding so they can apply their knowledge in patient care?