Group Learning Assessments as a Vital Consideration in the Implementation of New Peer Learning Pedagogies in the Basic Science Curriculum of Health Profession Programs.

Inspired by reports of successful outcomes in health profession education literature, peer learning has progressively grown to become a fundamental characteristic of health profession curricula. Many studies, however, are anecdotal or philosophical in nature, particularly when addressing the effectiveness of assessments in the context of peer learning. This commentary provides an overview of the rationale for using group assessments in the basic sciences curriculum of health profession programs and highlights the challenges associated with implementing group assessments in this context. The dearth of appropriate means for measuring group process suggests that professional collaboration competencies need to be more clearly defined. Peer learning educators are advised to enhance their understanding of social psychological research in order to implement best practices in the development of appropriate group assessments for peer learning.

Fitting form to function: reorganization of faculty roles for a new dental curriculum and its governance.

The College of Dentistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago has reorganized its predoctoral curriculum to better integrate biomedical, clinical, and behavioral sciences using a systems-based framework. The resulting D.M.D. curriculum features small-group discussions of patient scenarios that include orofacial, systemic, and professionalism learning objectives. Small-group learning is closely coordinated with laboratory, pre-patient care, and patient care experiences. Accordingly, the college has also reorganized its faculty roles to eliminate discipline-based silos and to better ensure program coherence. The new organizational structure is designed to improve coordination among faculty course teams that develop and administer individual courses, several units that provide curriculum resources and support services, and the curriculum committee, which is charged with governance of the curriculum as a whole. In addition, the new structure employs a system of reporting and planning relationships to ensure continuous monitoring and improvement of the curriculum. This article describes six principles that guide the new faculty roles structure, defines the various faculty roles and their coordinating relationships, presents diagrams depicting the organizational structures for curriculum governance, administration, and support, and discusses mechanisms for faculty support and continuous curriculum improvement.

Publication bias and its implications for evidence-based clinical decision making.

In this review, we define and discuss several aspects of publication bias: why it occurs; its importance to dental practitioners, dental educators, and dental students; its potential to affect treatment decisions; and how it can be detected. In addition, we briefly discuss attempts to reduce publication bias. Ideally, clinical decision making should be based on the totality of evidence and not on a sample biased by the selective publication of studies that show significant results. Dentistry increasingly depends on evidence-based decision making for treatment planning and therapy. As a result we, as a profession, need to fully appreciate the potential for publication bias to hinder advancements in oral health care by decreasing the availability of scientific evidence and threatening the validity of evidence-based practice.