Misconceptions amongst dental students: How can they be identified?

SMC Author

Samuel Lind

SMC Affiliated Work

1

Status

Faculty

School

School of Economics and Business Administration

Department

Business Analytics

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2-2018

Publication / Conference / Sponsorship

European Journal of Dental Education

Description/Abstract

Aim

To compare the frequency of misconceptions amongst dental students resulting from assessments in different subject areas using different types of multiple‐choice questions (MCQs). We wanted to know whether misconceptions, or strongly held incorrect beliefs, differed by subject area or question type.

Methods

A total of 104 students completed two assessments that included 20 MCQs on endodontics and 20 MCQs on dental implants. On each examination, 10 questions were scenario‐type questions requiring interpretation or analysis and 10 questions were factual‐based, knowledge questions. Incorrect responses and confidence levels by student and subject were recorded for a comparison of average misconceptions by question type and for correlations between scenario and knowledge question types for misconceptions on both assessments.

Results

Students were overly confident on their incorrect responses and misconceptions for both assessments. On the endodontic examination, students held a statistically significant higher number of mean misconceptions on scenario questions than for knowledge questions, but the difference was not statistically significant for the dental implant examination. There was a moderately weak relationship between scenario and knowledge questions for misconceptions on the endodontic (r=.31) and dental implant (r=.20) assessments, suggesting students who have misconceptions on knowledge questions are somewhat more likely to have misconceptions on scenario questions.

Conclusion

Students had a consistent rate of overconfidence (75%) in their incorrect responses regardless of question type or dental subject. Questions that prompted a higher per cent of incorrect responses were more likely to detect misconceptions, as students were highly confident in their mistakes, for both assessments.

Keywords

confidence, dental education, misconceptions, multiple‐choice questions

Scholarly

yes

Peer Reviewed

1

DOI

10.1111/eje.12264

Volume

22

Issue

1

First Page

e101

Last Page

e106

Disciplines

Business | Business Analytics | Economics

Rights

Open access repository

Original Citation

Grazziotin-Soares, R., Lind, S. L., Ardenghi, D. M., & Curtis, D. A. (2018). Misconceptions amongst dental students: How can they be identified? European Journal of Dental Education, 22(1), e101-e106. doi:10.1111/eje.12264

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