Dental colleges to discuss better teaching methods

Welcome Dear Guest

To create a new topic please register on the forums. For help contact : discussdentistry@hotmail.com

This topic has 3 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 11/12/2012 at 3:25 pm by Drsumitra.

Currently, there are 0 users and 2 guests visiting this topic.

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

Author

Posts
14/08/2012 at 5:05 pm #10826

drmithila
Offline
Registered On: 14/05/2011
Topics: 242
Replies: 578
Has thanked: 0 times
Been thanked: 0 times

Dental colleges to discuss better teaching methods

NAGPUR: VSPM Dental College has clubbed several of its ongoing projects under Dental Education Technology (DET), making it the first college in Vidarbha and only the third in the state to take up the course. The DET unit of the college, which was inaugurated in July by Maharashtra University of Health Sciences ( MUHS) vice-chancellor Dr Arun Jamkar, will be organizing the first three-day basic course in DET from August 28 to 30.

The objective of the course is to impart skills in the teachers for improvement of teaching quality. Issues like stress among dentistry students, making use of information technology for teaching, better teacher-student relationship are among the many topics to be taken up for deliberations. “Five dental colleges from Vidarbha will take part. The conclusions drawn will then be implemented by the participating colleges,” said the vice-dean of the college Dr Ramakrishna Shenoi. The aim is to replace rote learning by problem-based and competency-based learning, he said. “We are trying to do that by orienting the syllabus in a way that students will get more clinical exposure,” he added.

“Many teachers from the college have been engaged in projects of their own since long. Most of these projects have been driven by the feedback from our students about the various issues. With two of us having done fellowships of the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research, an organization that works towards improving healthcare by improving standards of education, it seemed that we were prepared to take up task of a DET unit,” said Dr Anjali Deshpande, co-chairperson of the unit.

“Methodologies like e-learning and simulation learning will help in enhanced learning, leaving nothing to the students’ imagination. It is important for us to learn these things before using them for teaching. So, these will also form a part of the courseware,” said prosthodontics teacher Dr Saee Deshmukh.

It is not just education techniques that these teachers would be talking about. Much importance has been given to the personal development of the students as well. “The relationship between teachers and students has undergone a big change. On the basis of answers of our students, we have drawn some pointers that will help the teachers be on friendlier terms with students,” said Dr Manjusha Pradhan, a teacher from the college involved in one of the projects.

Various factors that induce stress among the students, like fear of failure, insecurity about future and peer pressure will also be addressed by the teachers with some help from psychiatry department of the college.



16/08/2012 at 2:05 pm #15824

drsushant
Offline
Registered On: 14/05/2011
Topics: 253
Replies: 276
Has thanked: 0 times
Been thanked: 0 times

In my opinion, these modern teaching methods should have been implemented long back. Teaching methodologies in a dental college or for that matter even a medical college arepretty boring. But better late than never.



18/08/2012 at 1:41 pm #15834

Drsumitra
Offline
Registered On: 06/10/2011
Topics: 238
Replies: 542
Has thanked: 0 times
Been thanked: 0 times

he debate in India about how many dental colleges are necessary for the country is escalating. In a letter to the state government of Maharashtra, the President of the Dental Council of India, Dr Dibyendu Mazumder, has now asked the chief minister of the state to retract permission for a new dental college to be established at the Maharashtra University of Health Science.
Mazumder said that with increasing output of graduates from dental schools, there will be fewer and fewer patients to provide sufficient employment for dentists. In Maharashtra, which currently has over 35 educational institutes for dentistry, he said that the dentist to patient ratio has fallen lately to under 1:5,000, a number lower than recommended by the World Health Organization. The state recently increased the number of positions available in its three state-run dental colleges with the goal to provide attract more students.
With this trend continuing, Mazumder said that more and more dentists throughout the country are at risk of becoming jobless and pursuing other professions that offer more security and a better income, for example, in the business process outsourcing or insurance sector.
The problem of having too many dentists is not only limited to India’s third largest state. Last week, the government of New Delhi, for example, announced plans to expand the Maulana Azad Institute of Dental Sciences into a full university. Back in February, the Kerala chapter of the Indian Dental Association also ran a campaign against the opening of new colleges in their state, which already has 20 dental institutions and a ratio even lower than that in Maharashtra.
Nationwide, dental colleges have mushroomed over the last few years, now adding 30,000 new dentists to an already massive dental workforce of 1.3 million, according to the Dental Council of India.
The organisation has sought to halt the trend by introducing regulations to make it more difficult, particularly for private entities, to open new colleges. For the next academic year, therefore, new institutes will only receive permission if associated with a nearby medical college, the organisation said. From 2015, all dental colleges will also have to be certified by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council in Bangalore, a governmental body for quality assurance in higher education.
However, experts say that the step may already be too late and that there is time for a revised national strategy on dental education.



11/12/2012 at 3:25 pm #16246

Drsumitra
Offline
Registered On: 06/10/2011
Topics: 238
Replies: 542
Has thanked: 0 times
Been thanked: 0 times

The state government has tightened norms for setting up private dental colleges and has rejected the applications submitted by about 55 institutions for 2013-14, as they have no plans to set up attached hospitals.

Essentiality certificate has been issued to only one dental college promoted by the Malla Reddy group so far, which has its own medical college and a hospital.

The 55-plus college managements that had submitted applications now allege foul play over the change in norms at this stage. They said that as per the norms prescribed by the Dental Council of

India (DCI), a dental college can be allowed only if it is attached to a medical college situated within a 10-km radius.

Medical education department officials say that as per the latest DCI norms, an attached hospital is a must for approving a dental college.

The move is intended to check sub-standard dental colleges and ill-equipped hospitals mushrooming across the country. Most private dental and nursing colleges in the state do not have their own hospitals, but are attached to government hospitals.
The managements argue they had already spent about Rs 10 crore each to purchase land, construct college buildings, provide infrastructure and hire teachers.

They said that denying approvals to them at this state was unfair.

The managements have submitted representations to minister for medical education Kondru Murali and principal secretary Ratna Kishore. Officials say that a medical college’s attachment to a hospital is necessary to enable students to attend surgery and medicine classes.
Author

Posts

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.