Dental ethics and emotional intelligence.

Dental ethics is often taught, viewed, and conducted as an intell enterprise, uninformed by other noncognitive factors. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is defined distinguished from the cognitive intelligence measured by Intelligence Quotient (IQ). This essay recommends more inclusion of emotional, noncognitive input to the ethical decision process in dental education and dental practice.

A case of collegial communication and a patient who does not pay.

Four individuals who teach ethics in dental schools comment on a case in which negative financial information is revealed by one dentist when transferring records of a potential patient to another dentist. All commentators find varying degrees of ethical problem with disclosing such information. Professional codes discourage this practice. All commentators stress the importance of the potential new dentist developing a relationship based on professional standards, with the greatest emphasis placed on the patient's health needs. Several of the commentators discuss positive ways of conducting a patient interview, including specific useful language.

A student-initiated movement toward a more positive ethics.

Today's dental students can be counted on to solve problems, including ethical ones. This article documents the beginning of a student-initiated ethics club at the University of Southern California's dental school-SPEC, the Student Professionalism and Ethics Club. The organization and activities of SPEC are discussed, as is the interest this group has generated in helping form similar clubs at other dental schools.

PBL Core Skills Faculty Development Workshop 3: understanding PBL process assessment and feedback via scenario-based discussions, observation, and role-play.

Tutorial assessment in PBL is thought to be a valid assessment approach and is believed to exert a positive impact on the learning process. Reports, however, have demonstrated that assessment by the facilitator can be unreliable. Training of faculty to conduct this type of assessment has tended to be lacking and is a likely contributor to this inconsistency. This report describes the final in a series of foundation-building faculty development workshops focused on the instructional methodology of PBL. The PBL Assessment and Feedback workshop reported here introduced the theory and practice of conducting process-based assessment accompanied by formative feedback. Scenario-based discussions, mock group demonstration, role-modeling, and role-play were utilized as adult learning-appropriate strategies to familiarize participants with process-based assessment and feedback. Evaluation of the workshop by participants provided evidence that the majority of participants were satisfied with the methods and content of the workshop. Suggestions for additional training in these assessment methods included additional examples, practice, workshops, or observation and mentoring.

PBL core skills faculty development workshop 1: An experiential exercise with the PBL process.

This report describes the first in a series of foundation-building faculty development workshops focused on the instructional methodology of problem-based learning (PBL). The PBL Process workshop reported here introduced the learning theory topics supporting PBL and utilized an extended roleplay method to provide participants with personal experience with the PBL learning cycle. Overall, participants were satisfied with the methods and content of the workshop. A majority of survey respondents indicated that simulating a complete iteration of the PBL process was an effective way to learn about PBL. Participants expressed relatively greater difficulty understanding and performing activities related to qualitative assessment of learning processes. The workshop was developed to align with adult learning principles, and continued refinement of the workshop has enhanced the learning theory components underpinning PBL as well as the experiential aspects. These dual goals have resulted in blending the existing experiential workshop with an online distance-learning component addressing the learning theory topics relevant to PBL pedagogy.