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COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts on dental education: an evaluation by progress testing

Cleide Gisele Ribeiro (Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil)
Antônio Márcio Lima Ferraz Júnior (Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil)
Fernanda Ribeiro Porto (Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil)
Fabiana Aparecida Mayrink de Oliveira (Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil)
Fernando Luiz Hespanhol (Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil)
Rodrigo Guerra de Oliveira (Faculty of Medical Sciences and Health of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Brazil)

Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education

ISSN: 2050-7003

Article publication date: 14 February 2024

Issue publication date: 27 November 2024

21

Abstract

Purpose

The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way in which education was delivered in early 2020, and the impacts of these changes continue to be questionable. The aims of this study were to evaluate: (1) the results obtained by students of the Dentistry course in the progress test carried out both before and after the pandemic, (2) the results obtained by a specific group of students who took the test in 2019–2022, and compare their results and (3) subjects that showed a reduction in the percentage of correct answers when the two tests were compared.

Design/methodology/approach

The progress test consisting of 100 multiple choice questions was applied before and after the pandemic to all students in the Dentistry course. The analyses were performed using the IBM SPSS for Statistics v.26 software program. The level of significance of 5% was adopted (<0.05).

Findings

The test was applied to 320 students in 2019 and to 272 in 2022, of whom the sample of this study was composed. The mean score values in 2019 (M = 49.10; SD = 12.03) were significantly (p = 0.026) higher than those in the year 2022 (M = 46.97; SD = 12.15), with the disciplines in the area of specific knowledge showing a greater drop in the percentage of correct answers by students. This study showed that the emergency remote education had a negative effect on the academic performance of students, based on the progress testing as an evaluation method.

Originality/value

Many studies that assessed the impacts of the pandemic on teaching were focused on the opinions of students. However, the great advantage of our study was the use of a theoretical assessment tool to verify student performance. The post-pandemic landscape beckons for comprehensive inquiries into these domains. This type of research would be valuable for gathering evidence relative to the performance of students after the emergency remote education.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the participants of the study for their time and for sharing their views.

Citation

Ribeiro, C.G., Ferraz Júnior, A.M.L., Porto, F.R., de Oliveira, F.A.M., Hespanhol, F.L. and de Oliveira, R.G. (2024), "COVID-19 pandemic and the impacts on dental education: an evaluation by progress testing", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. 16 No. 5, pp. 2232-2244. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-08-2023-0338

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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