OPENING - ADEA Supporting Dental Education

Speaker: Rebecca L. Stolberg, RDH, MSDH

Description: As a newer educator taking on a course a question many of us face is "where do I start?" Through a special guest appearance Rebecca Stolberg, Vice President for Allied Dental Education and Faculty Development for American Dental Education Association (ADEA) will share resources and offerings available to support dental education. 

1. Intentionality in our Teaching Philosophy

Speaker: Julie Sutton, RDH, MS

Description:  What philosophy is your course communicating? How can you set the tone for classroom culture, independent of what you’re teaching? How does your personality, and your teaching style influence the outcomes of a course? Of what use is a teaching philosophy? Kick off day one of LEAP, together we will  unpack the phrase “teaching philosophy”, characterize our own, and identify how we can better communicate who we are in what we teach.

Objectives:

• Review evidence of existing teaching philosophy and identify characteristics of teaching style.
• Consider in what ways teaching philosophy could be more intentional, and consistent, throughout courses/a course.
• As a group, discuss favorable outcomes, which could be influenced by teaching philosophy.

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2. Inherited a Course - Now What?

Speaker: Cynthia C. Gadbury-Amyot, MSDH, EdD

Description: The possibility of inheriting a course during ones teaching career is highly probable.  And while ideally, we would like to have three months to prepare, it is also highly probable that we will have a few weeks at best.  So as the title states, now what?  This session will build on what we learned in the first session about developing our teaching philosophy.  Reasonable expectations, and survival tactics will be discussed among conference participants.  Strategies for creating quality courses will be covered.    

Objectives:

• Assess the importance of a teaching philosophy in providing the foundation for making a course one’s own.
• Prioritize steps that can be taken to get an inherited course up and running in a short period of time.
• Generate ideas for how to revise the course for future semesters/quarters using strategies discussed in this session regarding quality courses.

3. Starting With the End in Mind: Syllabus and Rubric Development

Speakers: Julie Sutton, RDH, MS & Cynthia C. Gadbury-Amyot, MSDH, EdD

Description: A course syllabus is often referred to as a “contract” between faculty and students.  The syllabus provides a roadmap and should help both sides understand their responsibilities for the course.  While there is no one model for syllabus creation, there is a great deal of guidance provided in the literature to set us on a good path toward the development of a quality syllabus.  The overarching goal of a course is to provide the foundation for meeting course objectives and assessing student achievement of those objectives.  This is where grading rubrics come into play.  This session will provide participants with a strong foundation for syllabus and rubric development.

Objectives:

• Describe features that contribute to the construction of a quality syllabus.
• Generate ideas for a grading rubric for a course activity introduced by the presenters.
• Apply strategies discussed for syllabus and rubric development to a course back at your main institutions.

 1. Achieving Higher-Level Learning with Less Stress

Speaker: Donna Wicker RDH, MEd, EdD 

Description: Healthcare education programs are notoriously challenging for students.  Dental hygiene education requires that students develop new psycho-motor function in instrumentation, while simultaneously learning to think critically, and apply information appropriately during patient care.  The variability of the patient care environment can be stressful; the added high-stakes environment of an educational classroom increases the pressure on students to perform and may become a hindrance to student learning.  It is beneficial for educators to know and understand how stress impacts student learning and how to reduce or remove barriers to improve student learning and achieve higher-level function.

Objectives:

• Understand how students learn and how to induce higher-level learning.
• Describe higher-level learning and why it’s important for healthcare students.
• Recognize how stress impacts learning- good and bad.
• Identify ways to help student’s reduce stress and encourage deeper learning.

2. The Teaching Between Class Time

Speaker: Sheree Duff, RDH, MSA

Description: As course directors we have the responsibility to hold office hours, meet with students that might be struggling and hold students accountable for attending class on-time and turning in assignments. But when have we had open conversations or received training on how to best maximize our office hours, how to approach students not performing well or that are challenging classroom policy? During this session we will discuss these challenges that we all face as course directors and navigate evidence-based practices to best support our students so we can dedicate more of our time and energy to our teaching.

Objectives:

• Discuss methods of maximizing office hour time and support open communication 
• Identify how to approach and support a student that might be struggling academically
• Identify how to handle difficult conversations with difficult students

3. How to Use Evidence-Based Teaching Strategies to Excel in Your Craft

Speaker: Lorie Holt, RDH, PhD

Description: There is no question that teachers make a difference in how well their students perform in school. However, when you explore the thousands of research studies on the topic, it is apparent that some teaching strategies have far more impact than others. Improvements in student learning and educational outcomes depend on the use of reliable evidence in teaching and learning practices. Knowing which interventions are likely to improve students’ levels of understanding and skills? What teaching strategies have been shown to work in practice? For which learners? Under what conditions? These questions and more will be addressed as we explore evidence-based teaching strategies supported by the evidence to have the most significant impact on student outcomes.   

Objectives:

• Understand the role that scientific evidence plays in the identification of best teaching practices.

• Recognize the role metacognition plays in teaching and learning practices.

• Identify evidence-based teaching/learning strategies and how to implement them into the curriculum.

1. Formative and Summative Evaluations: How These Can Be Used to Set Our Students Up for Success

Speaker: Kimberly Krust Bray, PhD, RDH

Description: Assessment measures if and how students are learning and if the teaching methods are effectively relaying the intended messages. Join us as we strive to develop a range of assessments strategies that match all aspects of your curriculum. Instead of trying to differentiate between formative and summative assessments it may be more beneficial to begin planning assessment strategies to match instructional goals and objectives at the beginning of the semester and implement them throughout the entire instructional experience. Join us for the presentations of appropriate assessments to match course and program objectives necessary for accreditation requirements.

Objectives:

• Consider a variety of formative and summative assessment strategies based on instructional objectives which help you understand your student’s needs.

2. Overview of Measurement and Assessment; Test Question Construction

Speaker: Sheila Vandenbush, PhD, CDA, RDA, RDH

Description: This interactive session will focus on current test construction and standardization as it relates to writing effective and meaningful examination questions that accurately assess student knowledge, skills, and concept application in preparation for the NBDHE.  

Objectives:

• Discuss the importance of assessment of test results for improving student success.
• Demonstrate how to write questions that augment the quality and quantity of content items to prepare students for the NBDHE.
• Recognize poorly written questions and edit questions to meet the JCNDE guidelines.
• Reframe examination questions to be succinct, meaningful, and provide a concise measure of evaluation.
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3. Designing Effective Case Studies

Speaker: Mary Cooper RDH, MSED

Description: Through understanding the development and application of case-based methodology, the participant learns the basic philosophy by assessing case learning outcomes with case-based evaluation. Since the Dental/Dental Hygiene National Board Examinations use cases in testing, students will benefit from reviewing and completing cases in the classroom and develop critical thinking skills through the use of inquiry teaching methods.

Objectives: After this session, participants will be able to:

• Create case studies to assess student understanding and learning.
• Evaluate students’ ability to recall, retrieve, integrate, and apply information to ‘real-life’ situation cases.