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Editorial
Dental
Education: Mental Vs. Manual Dexterity?
Over the past twenty one years, I have been serving as a full professor
of Dentistry and have served on various committees - be they in this University
or the University of Florida, where the issue of students' education was the
main focus. Over the years, learning, growth, work, study, participation and
interactions with both students and faculty at all levels ought to have
equipped me with an educational philosophy suitable for dentistry. In this
editorial, an attempt is being made to delineate this philosophy. My sole goal
of writing is, as always, to give our students the best attainable professional
education. One of my mottos have been "the greater the educational
achievements of my college/ university, the greater is my caliber as a professor".
Accordingly, I do have a self-serving purpose in improving students
education but, hopefully, one that serves the general good as well.
The education of a dental student is clearly divided to
two sections: education to enhance professional cognitive skills (mental
dexterity) and training to enhance professional dexterity (manual skills). By
necessity, the manual training section can not be but a reflection of the
cognitive skill section. In other words, no matter how great are we as a
faculty in training the students to develop their manual dexterity, and no
matter how natively talented our students are, their professional dexterity
development shall always be restricted by the level of cognitive skills we, the
faculty, impart upon them.
Adopting this philosophy means that whenever the
students' laboratory or clinical performance is below average, among the most
important reasons for such unsatisfactory performance is that his or her
cognitive skills are also below average. Using the same token, students'
excellent laboratory or clinical skills reflect, in the same manner, excellent cognitive
skills. This educational philosophy may be defined as "a quality
cognitive skill education is most likely to lead to quality manual dexterity training".
The above brings us to encounter the important fact
that if we feel, at a given time, that our students' performance is below
average we must, first and foremost, conscientiously examine the didactic education
we impart to them in developing their cognitive skills, i.e. the quality of
lectures given.
A quality lecture is usually given by a quality lecturer
who must meet many criteria besides familiarity with the subject of the
lecture. If familiarity with the subject of the lecture was the criterion for
lecture ability, then a fourth year student can give lectures to first and
second year students. On the other hand, having a Ph.D. or M.Sc. in the subject
is not enough, per se, to be a quality lecturer, either.
A quality lecture is one delivered by a person who is
thoroughly familiar with the subject but also enthusiastic in its deliberation.
He is a person eager enough to formulate the scientific content in a simple but
well organized and comprehensive manner. He should be eager enough to ask
himself several times on how can he present the subject to win the confidence
and enthusiasm of students, not only to understand but also to become
consciously aware of the importance of the subject to their knowledge. He
should be concerned and confident enough that each student is motivated not
only during the whole lecture period but throughout the whole course duration. Presentation
of the subject must be in adequate and satisfying breadth to win the attention
of students. The lecturer must speak in enough depth to appropirately challenge
them in order to arouse their interests and curiosity. I do believe that a good
lecturer is one who can give an examimation that will cover the important
points of the lecture in its entirety immediately at the end of the lecture, where
the lowest grade of the class would be 6/10. The grades among a good group of
students improve by time lapse (students study); among poor students, the
grades depreciate by time (students do not study). However, at the time of the lecture
all students should have a good grasp of its content.
A good lecturer ought to have the attitude of a highly
skilled professional. He should pride himself with his trade of being an
educator. By definition, an educator is one who is successful, beyond the shadow
of a doubt, in imparting knowledge conclusively, factually and pleasantly. With
all the above attributes, a lecturer must be confident that he can convey his
knowledge not only to students, who must gather the knowledge, but also to
people who just want to learn.
A good lecturer should be capable of giving a warranty
on his product "understand what I say, affirm that information by reading
the reasonable assigned material, and I guarantee that you will easily complete
this course successfully". The lecturer must feel it appropriate to share
the responsibility for success with the students. He needs to acknowledge,
especially to himself, that students success is his and their failures would
also be his.
A good lecturer is one who encourages students' questions
during the lecture and should not progress from a point to another until all
students expressed their comprehension. He must agree that in the process of
education, there is no such thing as a stupid question, there is only stupid answers.
Students should be continuously assured that they are welcome to ask any
question so long as the goal is to understand.
A good lecturer is one who asserts that his goal, and
that of his students, are one and the same. Therefore, establishing a good and
amicable relationship between himself and the students throughout the duration
of the course is imperative. He must gain their admiration, trust and deep appreciation
for his enduring efforts in helping them. He shares the joy of the excellent
performers as well as the sorrow of the weak ones. Moreover, he encourages good
students to excel by showing them how to but likewise supports the weak students
to improve themselves.
Should our students' cognitive skills be improved,
their manual dexterity can not but follow the same path. A well educated
student who understands the underlying reasons for performing a specific
treatment modality will be too proud not to render such treatment to the best
of his ability - application of knowledge to manual dexterity.
In summary, improving dental students' education is
achievable through enhancing their mental dexterity and the level of their
cognitive knowledge. The latter is focused directly on the quality of lectures
delivered. The essential requirement, therefore, for a reliable lecture is a valuable
lecturer. Having acquired the cognitive skills, students will be self-motivated
to acquire and maintain quality manual skills. The final outcome will be a
skillful graduate, both mentally and manually.
H. Mohammed-Al Tahawi
Member, Editorial Board
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