Evaluation of service-learning in dental and dental hygiene schools

Posted by on March 5, 2004

Evaluation of service-learning in dental and dental hygiene schools

Authored by CCPH Fellow Michelle Henshaw, this project is a monograph detailing a plan for evaluating the outcomes of service-learning in dental and dental hygiene schools. There is scant information pertaining to evaluating the outcomes of service-learning in health professional schools and virtually no information that relates directly to dental education. To address these gaps in service-learning, this project proposes to raise the awareness of service-learning in dental education and create an evaluation framework tailored to dental and dental hygiene education. The current status of service-learning, barriers to implementing service-learning and the evaluation schemes for existing service-learning programs will be assessed in dental and dental hygiene schools by developing and administering a survey to each school. The survey results will serve as the basis for two additional activities. The first will be to conduct personal interviews with the administrators of existing service-learning programs and schools that have tried unsuccessfully to implement programs or are currently in the process of implementing service-learning into their curriculum. The second phase of the implementation, creating an evaluation framework for service-learning in dental education, will build upon the information gained in the survey.

Download the monograph at http://www.futurehealth.ucsf.edu/ccph/2002fellows-henshaw.html