Correlation of psychomotor skills and didactic performance among dental students in Saudi Arabia

Ahmed R Afify,1 Khalid H Zawawi,1 Hisham I Othman,2 Ayman A Al-Dharrab31Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, 2Department of Basic Oral and Clinical Sciences, 3Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Rehabilitation, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaObjectives: The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between the psychomotor skills and the academic performance of dental students.Methods: Didactic and preclinical scores were collected for students who graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2011. Three courses (Dental Anatomy, Removable Prosthodontic Denture, and Orthodontics) were selected. Correlations comparing didactic and practical scores were done for the total samples, then for the males and females separately.Results: There was no significant correlation between the practical and didactic scores for the three courses for the total sample. There was a significant correlation between all three subjects in the didactic scores. For females, the results showed that there was only a significant correlation between the practical and didactic scores for Dental Anatomy. For males, no correlation was observed between the practical and didactic scores for all subjects.Conclusion: In the present sample, didactic performance did not correlate well with the students' psychomotor performance.Keywords: psychomotor performance, didactic performance, dental students, correlation study, dental education, practical performanc

Reliability of didactic grades to predict practical skills in an undergraduate dental college in Saudi Arabia

Khalid H Zawawi,1 Ahmed R Afify,1 Mohammed K Yousef,2 Hisham I Othman,3 Ayman A Al-Dharrab4 1Department of Orthodontics, 2Department of Operative Dentistry, 3Department of Oral Diagnostic Sciences, 4Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Prosthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Objectives: This longitudinal study was aimed to investigate the association between didactic grades and practical skills for dental students and whether didactic grades can reliability predict the dental students’ practical performance. Materials and methods: Didactic and practical grades for graduates from the Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, between the years 2009 and 2011 were collected. Four courses were selected: Dental Anatomy, Operative Dentistry, Prosthodontics, and Orthodontics. Pearson product-moment correlation analyses between didactic and practical scores were conducted. Results: There was only a significant correlation between didactic and practical scores for the Dental Anatomy course (P<0.001). There was also a significant correlation between all four subjects in the didactic scores (P<0.001). Only the scores of male students showed a significant correlation in the Operative Dentistry course (P<0.001). There were no correlations between Orthodontic grades. Moreover, a poor degree of reliability was found between didactic and practical scores for all subjects. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, the relationship between didactic grades and practical performance is course specific. Didactic grades do not reliably predict the students' practical skills. Measuring practical performances should be independent from didactic grading. Keywords: correlation study, dental education, dental students, practical performanc