Competency-based education in undergraduate clinical prosthodontics: A paradigm shift in training

Introduction

Competency-based education (CBE) is thought to improve the quality of dental graduates than traditional education (TE). This study compared the students' final scores in clinical training of prosthodontics using CBE versus TE.

Materials and Methods

This study enrolled 459 fourth- and fifth-year undergraduate students. Of the participants, 231 students (143 males and 88 females) attended TE and 228 (128 males and 100 females) attended CBE. This study considered the final scores that the students achieved for their competency cases and compared it with the scores achieved during the TE process. Statistical analysis of results used the Mann–Whitney U test for nonparametric numbers.

Results

The mean score of the clinical examination for all students in clinical prosthodontics courses was 81.4 (maximum and minimum scores: 95.0 and 41.3, respectively). The mean scores in the traditional and competency-based education groups were 79.9 ± 6.48 and 82.9 ± 6.87, respectively. Scores in the competency education group (mean rank = 265.08) were statistically significantly higher than in the conventional education group (mean rank = 195.38) with U = 18,336, z = −5.631, and p < .001.

Conclusions

The application of CBE allowed the students to achieve higher scores in prosthodontics than the TE.