Key Points
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The notion of 'attitudes' is more complex than many people realise
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Attitudes are an important feature of professional life
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There are several methods of teaching attitudes
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There is a rich variety of methods of assessing attitudes
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Attitudes in dentistry are too important not to be assessed
Abstract
An exploration is undertaken of the issues surrounding the assessment of attitudes in undergraduate dental programmes with a view to considering whether such an assessment is worthwhile. This paper addresses five questions: What are attitudes?; Why focus on them?; Can they be changed?; Can they be taught?; and How can they be assessed? The evidence and supporting arguments indicate that attitudes may be defined; there are cogent reasons for assessing them; they do change and they are taught; it is possible to assess them. The assessment of attitudes is not only worthwhile, it is essential.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Dr Jonathan Martin for drawing our attention to some of the research on attitude scales and the anonymous referees for their helpful comments on the original manuscript.
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Brown, G., Manogue, M. & Rohlin, M. Assessing attitudes in dental education: Is it worthwhile?. Br Dent J 193, 703–707 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4801665
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.4801665
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