Comparison of traditional and experimental expanded function dental hygiene students in hand scaling.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether an expanded function dental hygiene curriculum prepared students to perform traditional dental hygiene clinical procedures at the same level of competency as a traditional dental hygiene curriculum. Hand scaling was selected as the most appropriate procedure to evaluate. Fourth-year dental hygiene students enrolled in a special expanded function curriculum were compared to fourth-year students enrolled in the traditional dental hygiene curriculum during a controlled one-day experiment. Results indicated no statistically significant differences between the two student groups in the performance of scaling procedures as measured by number of tooth surfaces on which calculus remained. It was concluded that the University of Iowa expanded function dental hygiene curriculum prepared students to perform hand scaling procedures at a competency level comparable to that of the traditional curriculum.

The effect of instructor variance on students' grades.

Students' scores and subsequent grades for clinical courses should reflect their performance. The scores are dependent in part on the reliability of faculty evaluations. Large variance in instructor scoring could unduly affect students' final grades. This study investigated the effect on students' scores of instructor variance in clinical evaluation. The results indicated that instructor variance was responsible for 11 percent of the variance in students' final scores. The remainder of the differences resulted from differences in student performance. More than one half of the students' grades would have been either higher or lower if the scores assigned by one or more individual instructors had been excluded. For all but one student the net change in total scores was less than one standard deviation. The authors conclude that the students' grades were reliable and that individual differences among instructors did not unduly affect the students' final scores.