Expert consensus on Didactic Clinical Skills Development for orthodontic curricula.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE: Competence is expected of each beginning dentist and orthodontist. However, the broad definition of competence presents a challenge to academic programs in identifying the level of cognition for students to achieve competence. This study aimed to determine the Didactic Clinical Skills Development curriculum content and competency in predoctoral and advanced education orthodontic programs. METHOD: A modified Delphi method with a consensus threshold of 70% was employed using an expert panel of academic orthodontists. RESULTS: Round One (n = 26) identified that all topics proposed by a focus group were necessary, except for predoctoral Appliances, which was at 65%. Round Two (n = 23) included subtopics of Appliances to confirm the lack of consensus, plus subtopics of all the other topics and the level of cognition required for each subtopic. The expert panel reached a consensus that all 24 subtopics, hence all topics, were necessary. In Round Three, subtopic responses in Round Two were assigned a value between 1 (remember) and 6 (create) to generate a hierarchical level-of-learning scale. Mean values were calculated for each subtopic response. For all subtopics, the mean level of cognition for predoctoral education was at understand; for advanced education, it was at evaluate. CONCLUSION: This consensus suggests that, to be deemed competent, beginning dentists must learn these topics and subtopics in the cognitive domain of understand, and beginning orthodontists in the cognitive domain of evaluate. This study showed an expert consensus on Didactic Clinical Skills Development orthodontic curriculum content and a panorama of educational objectives that could be used as a template for curriculum design.

Expert Consensus on Growth and Development Curricula for Predoctoral and Advanced Education Orthodontic Programs.

Dental students and orthodontic residents must demonstrate competence in various areas prior to graduation. However, the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) definition of competence is broad. The aims of this study were to obtain expert consensus on Growth and Development topics and subtopics in predoctoral and advanced education programs in orthodontics and to determine the level of cognition on the subtopics necessary to demonstrate learner competence. A modified Delphi method with a consensus threshold of 70% was used. In Round One, academic orthodontists who met the expert panel inclusion criteria were surveyed to determine whether a topic was necessary to the curricula. Round Two identified the subtopics under each topic and the level of cognition necessary to demonstrate learner competence using Bloom's taxonomy, which defines the ascending levels of remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. Round Three involved analyses and interpretation of Round Two results. The academic orthodontists determined that six topics (n=24) and 29 subtopics (n=15) were necessary for Growth and Development curricula. For all subtopics, they determined the mean level of cognition for predoctoral education was understand; for advanced education, it was analyze. This consensus on Growth and Development curricular content suggests that these levels are necessary for a beginning dentist and a beginning orthodontist to be deemed competent. Findings from this study can serve to guide curricular development and instruction by using the identified learning objectives to build instructional and assessment measures.