Artikel
The effect of repeated testing versus repeated practice on skills learning in undergraduate dental education
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Autoren
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Sabine Sennhenn-Kirchner
- Göttingen, Deutschland
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Yvonne Görlich
- Göttingen, Deutschland
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Marcel Notbohm
- Göttingen, Deutschland
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Sarah Schiekirka
- Göttingen, Deutschland
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Anne Simmenroth-Nayda
- Göttingen, Deutschland
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Tobias Raupach
- Göttingen, Deutschland
| Veröffentlicht: | 5. September 2016 |
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Gliederung
Text
Objectives: Recent studies in undergraduate medical education have demonstrated the advantage of repeated testing over repeated studying with regard to knowledge and skills retention. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this ‘testing effect’ also applies to skills retention in undergraduate dental education.
Methods: In this prospective, randomized controlled trial, fourth-year dental students at Göttingen University Medical Centre participated in a training session on surgical suturing in winter term 2014/15. During summer term 2015they were randomly assigned to either 2 sessions of additional skills training (group A) or 2 sessions of skills assessment with feedback (group B). These sessions were spaced over a period of four weeks. Skills retention was assessed in a summative objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) at the end of term, i.e. six months after the initial teaching session.
Results: A total of 32 out of 36 eligible students completed the study. With regard to suturing, OSCE performance was significantly better in group B than group A (81.9±13.1% vs. 63±15.4%; p=0.001; Cohen’s d=1.33). There was no significant difference of performance between the two groups with regard to other learning objectives that were addressed in the end-of-term exam. Thus, the group difference was specific to suturing skills.
Conclusions: This is the first study to demonstrate that in dental education, repeated testing produces more favourable skills retention than repeated practice. These findings should have implications for the design of undergraduate dental curricula.
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