Perceptions of curriculum innovation among educators in South African dental schools - an explorative study

[摘要] Curriculum changes that have occurred in most South African dental schools have beeninfluenced by several factors such as organizational outlook (the dental school as alearning organization), legislative frameworks that have had an influence on highereducation in South Africa and epistemological interpretations of these changes byeducators within dental schools.Very little is known about how medical and dental educators experience curricularchange or innovations that in effect may contest their established pedagogical views.They themselves (especially those who have been teaching for many years) areproducts of a teacher-centred approach to learning. This, therefore, means they mayhave a product orientation rather than a process orientation to curriculum development.What may have been overlooked is that challenges and successes of curricular reformor revision may also be influenced by challenges to the established identity and role ofteachers involved, and that some teachers' perceptions about teaching may be inconflict with the recommended changes or innovations.The purpose of this study therefore, was to explore the influence (if any) on SouthAfrican dental educators' perceptions towards curriculum change or innovation whichhas occurred in the dental schools and to assess their orientation to modern pedagogicpractice.The objectives of the study were twofold. Firstly to determine the South African dentaleducators' perceptions and pedagogic practices to the following trends in healthsciences education viz. curriculum organization, education for capability, communityorientation, self-directed learning, problem-based learning, evidence-based healthsciences education, communication and information technology and service learning.The second objective was to determine the influence of socio-demographic variables tothe dental educators' perceptions and pedagogic practices.Data was collected through a questionnaire which was sent to all educators at dentalschools. At the time of conducting this study there were 220 educators; 168 educatorsresponded to the questionnaire. There was a 76% response rate to the questionnaire.The data was processed utilizing responses and coding them into a computerized dataset. It was coded, edited and checked using the procedures provided by the StatisticalAnalysis System (SAS) in order to work out the various calculations relevant to thestudy. The SAS FREQ procedure was used to calculate the descriptive statisticsneeded.The study indicated that the teacher-centred paradigm is still predominant, even thoughthe educators claimed to be using some aspects of modern pedagogic practice. Onesocio-demographic variable that had a significant influence (p<0,05) on communityorientation was the age of the educator. Another variable that had a significantinfluence on evidence-based health sciences education was number of years inacademic dentistry.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University