Taxonomy for competency-based dental curricula.

The objective of this article is to propose a classification of dental competencies. Interest in dental competencies has grown consistently during the last three decades. However, the dental education literature suggests that the term "competency" is understood and used differently by dental schools around the world. The taxonomic classification of dental competencies we propose follows a systematic approach starting at the highest level of complexity, i.e., the professional profile the teaching institution envisions for its graduates, and following in a decreasing degree of complexity to competency function, task, step, movement, and moment. This taxonomy has proved to be useful for more than thirty years in the Dental School of the Peruvian University Cayetano Heredia. Graduates of this school are successful practitioners, teachers, and researchers in Peru and other countries. The classification proposed here should clarify terms, facilitate curriculum design and learning assessment, stimulate further discussion on the matter, and facilitate communication among the dental education establishment.