Could situational judgement tests be used for selection into dental foundation training?

OBJECTIVE: To pilot and evaluate a machine-markable situational judgement test (SJT) designed to select candidates into UK dental foundation training. DESIGN: Single centre pilot study. SETTING: UK postgraduate deanery in 2010. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Seventy-four candidates attending interview for dental foundation training in Oxford and Wessex Deaneries volunteered to complete the situational judgement test. INTERVENTIONS: The situational judgement test was developed to assess relevant professional attributes for dentistry (for example, empathy and integrity) in a machine-markable format. Test content was developed by subject matter experts working with experienced psychometricians. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Evaluation of psychometric properties of the pilot situational judgement test (for example, reliability, validity and fairness). Scores in the dental foundation training selection process (short-listing and interviews) were used to examine criterion-related validity. Candidates completed an evaluation questionnaire to examine candidate reactions and face validity of the new test. RESULTS: Forty-six candidates were female and 28 male; mean age was 23.5-years-old (range 22-32). Situational judgement test scores were normally distributed and the test showed good internal reliability when corrected for test length (α = 0.74). Situational judgement test scores positively correlated with the management, leadership and professionalism interview (N = 50; r = 0.43, p <0.01) but not with the clinical skills interview, providing initial evidence of criterion-related validity as the situational judgement test is designed to test non-cognitive professional attributes beyond clinical knowledge. Most candidates perceived the situational judgement test as relevant to dentistry, appropriate for their training level, and fair. CONCLUSION: This initial pilot study suggests that a situational judgement test is an appropriate and innovative method to measure professional attributes (eg empathy and integrity) for selection into foundation training. Further research will explore the long-term predictive validity of the situational judgement test once candidates have entered training.

Microsatellite markers in avocado (Persea americana Mill.): genealogical relationships among cultivated avocado genotypes.

Twenty-five microsatellite markers uniquely differentiated 35 avocado cultivars and two wild relatives. Average heterozygosity was high (60.7%), ranging from 32% in P. steyermarkii to 84% in Fuerte and Bacon. In a subset of 15 cultivars, heterozygosity averaged 63.5% for microsatellites, compared to 41.8% for restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs). A neighbor-joining tree, according to average shared allele distances, consisted of three clusters likely corresponding to the botanical races of avocado and intermediate clusters uniting genotypes of presumably racially hybrid origin. Several results were at odds with existing botanical assignments that are sometimes rendered difficult by incomplete pedigree information, the complexity of the hybrid status (multiple backcrossing), or both. For example, cv. Harvest clustered with the Guatemalan race cultivars, yet it is derived from the Guatemalan x Mexican hybrid cv. Gwen. Persea schiedeana grouped with cv. Bacon. The rootstock G875 emerged as the most divergent genotype in our data set. Considerable diversity was found particularly among accessions from Guatemala, including G810 (West Indian race), G6 (Mexican race), G755A (hybrid Guatemalan x P. schiedeana), and G875 (probably not P. americana). Low bootstrap support, even upon exclusion of (known) hybrid genotypes from the data matrix, suggests the existence of ancient hybridization or that the botanical races originated more recently than previously thought.