As a clinical educator, I am preparing my students to be Registered Dental Hygienists. As hygienists, they will view themselves as oral care providers. They will take on many roles as a health care provider by educating their patients on proper oral hygiene instruction, gum therapist by treating performing non-surgical therapeutic services, and mental care aide, by just listening to their patients. As a result of their academic success, my hope for my students is that they become happy productive dental hygienists demonstrating high standards of care in their profession and community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To get my students ready for the duties and expectations of dental hygiene practice, I expect my students to be critical thinkers by using their foundational knowledge to evaluate and apply it to their treatment and care of patients. They will create treatment plans for patient care and develop oral hygiene instruction plans based on patient assessments. I expect the student dental hygienist to also demonstrate a willingness to understand different cultures\/ people and their thoughts and beliefs about dentistry. With each new semester, the students learn the use of more complex hygiene skills and adjunctive therapies. Teaching techniques I like to use are demonstrations as well as questioning. I will have the student show what they did and then I will demonstrate the correct way and have them repeat what I did. Questioning students with prompting and clarifying questions enables the student to access foundational knowledge as well as provoke rational and reasoning for different situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To facilitate student learning, I want my students to see the relevance of their education. By sharing what occurs inside the private dental office, outside of the student clinic, the student can appreciate why we have rules and regulations, as well as the increasing difficulty within each subsequent clinic session. To appeal to all learning types, I like to know what learning style the students use. At the beginning of first semester, we poll the students to determine what learning style they are. This helps faculty engage with students in the manner they learn best. To engage in critical thinking during clinical sessions, I like to use prompting and evaluating questioning. I want the student to establish an opinion on the patient\u2019s health status, as well as their disease level. Being a clinical instructor, students can practice their assessments and formulate case presentations to the instructor. The students are also able to engage in clinical conversation with the dentist during the exam segment of their appointment. This repetitive practice allows the student to be more comfortable in their case presentations to the patient and dentist. Throughout each clinic session, the student will receive verbal as well a written assessment from me. When the student is near to grasping the concept or technique, I like to use the phrase, \u201cnot there yet and almost\u201d This verbiage tells the student they are on the correct pathway to success. For those students who struggle, I will give extra time for observation and demonstration, as well as referring them to the Individual Learning Center for one-on-one learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the upcoming academic year, I am striving to be more descriptive in my written evaluations. I want to incorporate more leading questions to initiate critical thinking. Because there is a time crunch in clinic for getting activities checked off, I tend to not \u201cpause\u201d long enough to wait for an answer. This academic year, I will be more assertive in my expectations of students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To continue my development as an educator, I will be working towards my masters\u2019 degree in dental hygiene. I will be incorporating what I have learned in my own classwork about teaching adult learners in my clinical teaching. Currently I am reading What the best college teachers do<\/em> by Ken Bain. I hope to glean some insight into what motivating, productive teachers do. This summer I will also be attending the ADHA Annual session in Chicago. My goal is to attend the educational CE portion and network. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past year of teaching, I have realized that have a good grasp of how to teach adult learners. I understand their needs and how they learn. I teach with respect rather than with fear, gentle yet firm. From what I have read in the literature, part time adjuncts tend to be the fun and friendly teachers. Eventually I need to be more involved in the didactic teaching process. Over the last semester writing lesson plans has become easier. The lesson plans are organized and have a formula. My local professional association presents uninteresting continuing education (CE), so my goal for didactic teaching would be to write two CE\u2019s for presentation in 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As a clinical educator, I am preparing my students to be Registered Dental Hygienists. As hygienists, they will view themselves as oral care providers. They will take on many roles as a health care provider by educating their patients on proper oral hygiene instruction, gum therapist by treating performing non-surgical therapeutic services, and mental care… <\/p>\n