Contemporary issues in clinical dental teaching.

Aim: This research project sought to explore the issue of what constitutes effective clinical teaching in the minds of both students and teachers.

Background: As stakeholders of the dental clinical setting, teachers and students have valuable practical insights to share with the academic and professional community as to what constitutes effective dental teaching.

Case Description: An explorative qualitative study of dental teachers' and students' perceptions of clinical teaching was carried out at the Faculty of Dentistry of Sydney University.

Academic perceptions amongst educators towards eLearning tools in dental education.

This paper reports an explorative study about academic educators' perceptions towards learning management systems (LMS) and eLearning tools as used in dental education. Fifty-five educators participated in an online survey which explored their views on eLearning tools within the context of their own professional training background and teaching needs. In general, educators felt that the eLearning LMS (also known as WebCT/Blackboard) was a tool that suited their teaching and learning needs in terms of flexibility, interactivity and accessibility despite a significant level of self-reported lack of competence in the technology.

Australian dental students' views about smoking cessation counseling and their skills as counselors.

Objectives: This paper seeks to determine Australian dental students' views about and skills to provide smoking cessation counseling.

Methods: In 2000, we surveyed dental students enrolled in all five years of the undergraduate degree course at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney, Australia.

Results: We obtained 248 questionnaires (response rate=88%).