Competency-based education has gained attention in higher education (Fastré, Klink, Amsing-Smit, & Merriënboer, 2014). It is a model that determines if the student is competent in the ability, skills, or knowledge and is capable to prove it (Leggett, 2015). Competence changes over time, with experience, and with the environment (Gruppen et al., 2016). Several factors influence competence, which are knowledge, attitudes, and judgment (Gruppen et al., 2016). Competency-based education has four components (Gruppen et al., 2016). It focuses on outcomes of learning, stresses abilities, decreases emphasis on placing learning on a time schedule, and promotes student-centered learning (Gruppen et al., 2016). This approach ensures that students do not …show more content…
However, this can be difficult for dental hygiene programs to assess. The Commission on Dental Accreditation regulates dental hygiene programs and defines competent as “the levels of knowledge, skills, and values required by new graduates to begin the practice of dental hygiene” (Commission on Dental Accreditation [CODA], 2017, p. 11). Dental hygiene programs must provide a two-year curriculum that develops graduates who are competent in providing optimal patient care within a wide range of settings and meet the needs of a changing healthcare setting (CODA, 2017). Dental hygiene curriculum comprises of didactic, lab, and clinic courses. For dental hygiene clinic courses, faculty assess dental hygiene students to see if they are competent in clinical skills. This addresses the factor of stressing the ability of the student that is seen in competency-based education. However, three of the four factors for competency-based education are not meet in most dental hygiene programs. Most dental hygiene programs use traditional methods of teaching and evaluating for the didactic courses, such as lectures and exams. Traditional courses rely on legitimacy of curriculum to define outcomes and assessments, and competency-based education measures the outcome of learning of the student (Gruppen et al., 2016). Dental hygiene programs follow strict time-line for …show more content…
This proposed research seeks to explore if implementing competency-based education would benefit dental hygiene programs and to explore challenges and concerns of implementing competency-based education, the reason why competency-based education has not been implemented in dental hygiene programs, and the types of assessments that can be used for competency-based education. The researcher would like to answer the following questions:
What are the benefits of implementing competency-based education?
What are the challenges and concerns of implementing a competency-based education?
What might be the reasons why dental hygiene programs have not implemented competency-based education?
What type of assessments can be used for competency-based