"Practical skills" - Positioning of the GMA committee for dentistry.

The GMA committee for dentistry of the German Society for Medical Education (GMA) considers its' main purpose the representation and interconnection of all aspects of dentistry with and within the GMA. Teaching and assessing practical skills during training is traditionally of great importance in dental education. This is also reflected in the National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Dental Education (NKLZ). Practical skills are not comprised in a separate chapter as they are in the National Competence Based Catalogue of Learning Objectives for Medical Education (NKLM), but are considered in all sections of the NKLZ for the purpose of interdisciplinary patient- or disease-specific application, targeting the educational level of acting competency. The implementation of the associated joined interdisciplinary integrated educational concept has undoubtedly been a challenge for dental curriculum development against the backdrop of German Dental Licensure Act dating back to 1955.

Assessment formats in dental medicine: An overview.

AIM: At the annual meeting of German dentists in Frankfurt am Main in 2013, the Working Group for the Advancement of Dental Education (AKWLZ) initiated an interdisciplinary working group to address assessments in dental education. This paper presents an overview of the current work being done by this working group, some of whose members are also actively involved in the German Association for Medical Education's (GMA) working group for dental education. The aim is to present a summary of the current state of research on this topic for all those who participate in the design, administration and evaluation of university-specific assessments in dentistry. METHOD: Based on systematic literature research, the testing scenarios listed in the National Competency-based Catalogue of Learning Objectives (NKLZ) have been compiled and presented in tables according to assessment value. RESULTS: Different assessment scenarios are described briefly in table form addressing validity (V), reliability (R), acceptance (A), cost (C), feasibility (F), and the influence on teaching and learning (EI) as presented in the current literature. Infoboxes were deliberately chosen to allow readers quick access to the information and to facilitate comparisons between the various assessment formats. Following each description is a list summarizing the uses in dental and medical education. CONCLUSION: This overview provides a summary of competency-based testing formats. It is meant to have a formative effect on dental and medical schools and provide support for developing workplace-based strategies in dental education for learning, teaching and testing in the future.