The clinical scope of pediatric dentistry includes different procedures such as restorative and preventive treatments (fluoride application and fissure sealants), endodontic treatments (pulpotomy and pulpectomy), and extractions in patients up to the age of 12 years. In our university pediatric dentistry is offered in the fifth (final year) only, therefore the authors were convinced to perform the present study only on final-year dental students. As per the existing dental curriculum of the universities in the UAE, pediatric dentistry is offered in either the fourth or fifth year. Pena in 2010 stated that ‘competence develops after having considerable experience ( 8)Ĭonsidering the minimal research on the DK effect among dental students globally, the present study aimed to examine the presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect in fifth (final) year dental undergraduate students at Gulf Medical University, UAE, in the clinical domains of pediatric dentistry.
#DUNNING KRUGER GRAPH PROFESSIONAL#
It cannot be emphasized enough how important it is to develop confidence in students' patient communication and clinical skills before beginning professional practice ( 7). The existence of the DK effect in students will result in poor communication in the student-child-parent communication triangle, misdiagnosis, and poorly performed clinical procedures. These observations have significant ethical implications where less-skilled students may accept assignments for which they are unqualified because they are overestimating their skill set. Research by Fitzmaurice in 2020 shows that a student with poorer results during a continuous assessment shows a higher level of self-confidence than students with better results ( 6). The existing literature states that the prevalence of the DK effect among students may affect their clinical performance. On the contrary, there is limited evidence on the existence of cognitive bias and its impact on students' performance in various health science professions. Studies have evaluated ‘perceived stress’ among students as a factor responsible for negatively impacting clinical and academic performance ( 5). Yet another interesting study conducted in the United States of America concluded that individuals with limited knowledge about the causes of autism and its link with vaccines were the ones who were overconfident and showed less support for mandatory vaccination policies ( 4). This pattern of overestimating one's knowledge was also observed among psychology students at an Ecuadorian university in the language (vocabulary) and logic tests ( 3). On the other hand, students who performed well on both tests underestimated their ability, a phenomenon known as the imposter syndrome ( 2). Students in the examined group had low scores on grammar and professional knowledge tests, and the same students overestimated their knowledge. A study conducted by a group of authors in the United States confirmed that this phenomenon occurred in aviation students. Most of the research that focuses on the DK effect confirms the occurrence of the phenomenon among certain groups of people. People tend to overestimate their cognitive ability until/unless their competence increases to the point where they become aware of their shortcomings, according to the Dunning–Kruger effect (Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication – Can be copied, modified, distributed, and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission: ).ĭunning and Kruger, social psychologists who discovered the phenomenon claimed that people who have poorly developed skills or lack knowledge have an unrealistically optimistic image or illusion of superiority that develops as a consequence of misperception of others or as an overestimation of their own knowledge ( 1). A graph depicts how confidence in speaking on a subject grows with experience and knowledge.
0 kommentar(er)
