Assessment: Strategies for Oral Health Education

A special issue of Oral (ISSN 2673-6373).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 March 2026 | Viewed by 735

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Dentistry, Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, King’s College London, London SE1 9RT, UK
Interests: assessment and curriculum design; statistics education; artificial intelligence; periodontal disease; immunology of oral diseases

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Assessment in oral health education is vital to ensure public safety. Assessment practice is complex, fraught with issues around feedback, continuity between assessments, assessment for learning, student literacy in assessment, competence versus competency, authentic assessment, artificial intelligence, differential attainment, and student satisfaction. This Special Issue focuses on these challenges in an attempt to better understand the issues and how assessment design can be improved and rendered more effective.

This Special Issue of Oral does not view assessment solely as an event, but as a process that links teaching, curriculum, learning outcomes, pedagogy, and professional ethics and values. We explore assessment practices to identify mechanisms and methodologies for improving or enhancing design.

We invite submissions that address topics including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Artificial intelligence and authentic assessment;
  • Machine learning and assessment;
  • Standard setting of assessment;
  • Contemporary psychometric/statistical analysis of assessments;
  • Competence- or competency-based education;
  • Assessment for/as learning;
  • Formative assessment;
  • Summative assessment;
  • Feedback paradigms;
  • Differential attainment/attainment gap.

We also invite submissions from non-clinicians or educators, particularly those with a research interest in or around assessment. Submissions may include original research articles, reviews, short communications, commentaries, and case studies. Submissions may use qualitative, or quantitative, or mixed-methods approaches.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Adam S. Hasan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Oral is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • artificial intelligence and authentic assessment
  • competence- or competency-based education
  • assessment for/as learning
  • formative assessment
  • summative assessment
  • feedback paradigms
  • differential attainment/attainment gap
  • community dentistry

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

25 pages, 1292 KB  
Review
Reforming Dental Curricula: A Student-Centred Novel Approach Integrating Prosthodontic Care for Older Adults
by Olga Naka, Panagiota Chatzidou, Lisa Christina Pezarou and Vassiliki Anastassiadou
Oral 2025, 5(4), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/oral5040073 - 23 Sep 2025
Viewed by 476
Abstract
The global demographic transition toward an ageing population has necessitated substantive reforms in dental education, particularly within the field of geriatric prosthodontics. Conventional curricula have frequently prioritized technical competencies while insufficiently addressing the integration of biological, psychosocial, and ethical complexities inherent in the [...] Read more.
The global demographic transition toward an ageing population has necessitated substantive reforms in dental education, particularly within the field of geriatric prosthodontics. Conventional curricula have frequently prioritized technical competencies while insufficiently addressing the integration of biological, psychosocial, and ethical complexities inherent in the care of older adults. This scoping review critically examined these curricular deficiencies by synthesizing evidence from 34 peer-reviewed studies, employing Bloom’s Taxonomy as a conceptual framework to inform a systematic and pedagogically grounded curriculum redesign. The primary aim was to identify existing gaps in undergraduate and postgraduate education, evaluate the efficacy of active and simulation-based learning modalities, assess the utility of reflective practices and standardised assessment tools, and formulate strategic, taxonomy-aligned pedagogical guidelines. Following the PRISMA-ScR methodology, the included studies were thematically analysed and categorized across the six cognitive levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Findings highlighted the effectiveness of integrated educational strategies, including Case-Based Learning, interprofessional education, virtual simulations, and structured assessments such as Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE). Furthermore, reflective models such as “What? So What? Now What?” fostered higher-order cognitive processes, ethical reasoning, and self-directed learning. By aligning cognitive levels—from foundational knowledge recall to innovative creation—ten evidence-based educational guidelines were developed. These guidelines are pedagogically sound, empirically supported, and adaptable to diverse curricular contexts. The proposed framework ensures a deliberate, progressive trajectory from theoretical comprehension to clinical expertise and ethical leadership. Future research should explore longitudinal outcomes and develop scalable, culturally responsive models to support the broader implementation of curricular reform in geriatric dental education. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Assessment: Strategies for Oral Health Education)
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