Key Points
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Learning outcomes are an integral part of many learning programmes in dentistry at all stages of the education continuum.
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Learning outcomes are challenging to construct and write correctly.
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There is benefit to both the learner and programme provider in understanding their purpose and how to construct an optimal learning outcome.
Abstract
Explicitly-stated learning outcomes are an expected, integral part of contemporary under- and postgraduate learning programmes in dentistry. Writing learning outcomes, however, can be challenging and undertaken with a risk of not understanding what is meant by them and what well-constructed outcomes are meant to do. Written badly, learning outcomes will not help capture the goals of educational interventions or, perhaps worse, they end up as nothing more than a complex, frustrating hoop-jumping exercise in both their conception and utilisation. Underlying misconceptions of the purpose of learning outcomes or how to develop them are likely contributors to this situation. We would argue that if one understands the background, construct and intended purpose of learning outcomes we are more likely to write them so that they can actually be applied and therefore used effectively.
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Bateman, H., Ellis, J., Stewart, J. et al. Using learning outcomes in dental education. Br Dent J 223, 854–857 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.993
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bdj.2017.993
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