Dental students' motivation and the context of learning

Bettina Tjagvad Kristensen, Ingeborg Netterstrom, Lars Kayser

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This qualitative study shows dental students' motives for choosing the dental education and how the motives influence their motivation at the first semester of study. Further the study demonstrates the relevance of the context of learning. This issue is of importance when planning a curriculum for the dental education. The material consists of interviews with eight dental students. The results show that dental students were focused on their future professional role, its practical dimensions and their future working conditions. Their motivation for choosing the dental education was found to influence their motivation for studying and their experience of the relevance of the first semester. The dental students who had co-education with the medical students at the first year of study missed a dental context and courses with clinically relevant contents. In conclusion, our data signify the importance of the context of learning. It is recommended that a future curriculum for the dental school should be designed in a way where basic science subjects are taught with both theoretically as well as practically oriented subjects and in a context which is meaningful for the students.
Original languageEnglish
JournalEuropean Journal of Dental Education
Volume13
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)10-4
Number of pages4
ISSN1396-5883
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

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