Overall concluding remarks

The overall concluding remarks derived from this study are the following:

• From an organizational point of view dental schools in South Africa tend to exist as “closed systems” in which stability, group loyalty, clear boundaries, security and tight controls are emphasized (Berquist, 1992; Goffee and Jones, 1996; Schein, 1996). The tendency is that this type of system does not encourage the self-critique and dialogue that are needed for self- development and progress among teachers or lecturers. Of particular importance though is that “closed systems” tend to be slow to respond to challenges and that when change occurs it tends to happen slowly as is apparently happening in South African dental schools.

• Implementing change within South African dental schools will require an open organizational structure in which flexibility, collaboration, consensus and communication are emphasized.

• South African dental schools, for the most part, have not traditionally cultivated a culture or reward system that values teaching excellence, evidence-based educational methodology, or scholarship that might otherwise predispose academic staff to openness to change and innovation.

• Even though South African dental schools are supposed to be learning organizations, there is a tendency to de-emphasize the scholarship of teaching.

• Despite the drive for integration within the curriculum, most of the teachers or lecturers’ perceptions seem to indicate that there should be a disconnect between the biomedical and dental disciplines in the curriculum.

• There seems to be a strong tradition of departmental autonomy and faculty allegiance to disciplines rather than to the dental school as a whole.

• The product model of curriculum development is teacher centred i.e. the teacher or lecturer has the knowledge and transmits this to students who receive it passively. This model seems to be the predominant perception of teaching among the older and more experienced teachers who are “set in their ways” (Carrotte, 1994:219), and have difficulty in changing to the more progressive process model which is student centred, where the teacher or lecturer provides an environment that is catalytic to self-directed learning. Furthermore, it would appear that the younger teachers or lecturers are more adaptable to self-directed learning modalities, such as problem-based learning and community-based education.

6.5 Recommendations

The recommendations that flow from this study are the following:

• Overall staff development strategies should be implemented within each dental school. For example, a dental education advisor at either senior lecturer or professorial rank can be appointed within each dental school. Such advisors would be in an ideal position to organize staff development sessions in education practice. These sessions could be organized on a school, departmental or individual basis. It would be more effective to link such practice to staff appraisal, especially if such appraisal is truly develop- mental rather than critical or punitive.

• Teaching as a form of scholarship should be given the same weighting and significance as research and patient care.

• Innovation, development and change in dental education at a number of progressive dental schools in the world, have carried with them a growing appreciation of the importance of education and teaching (Oliver et al, 2008). At these schools broader definitions of scholarship have emerged along with corresponding changes in their respective academic reward systems. Similar trends should be emphasized within South African dental schools.

The definition of scholarship generally applied to South African dental schools is unnecessarily narrow and tends to exclude areas of legitimate academic activity and productivity that are vital to the fulfillment of the school’s educational mission. Scholarship is demonstrated only by research, peer review of results, and dissemination of new knowledge. For this reason, faculty who are essential to the core educational mission of their dental schools often are not promoted because they do not engage in accepted forms of scholarship. Yet, the same faculty may conceptualize, design, implement, or evaluate new curricula, interdisciplinary courses or modules, assessment instruments and web-based learning materials.

The fundamental recommendation here is that South African dental schools must seriously consider rewarding and recognising the scholarship of teaching. This can for example be in the form of creative teaching with effectiveness that is rigorously substantiated, educational leadership with results that are demonstrable and broadly felt, and educational methods that advance students’ knowledge.

• Curriculum ownership by all stakeholders within dental schools must be encouraged. It is important to involve as many people as possible because people change more easily when they are involved in the process. One convenient way would be to establish a number of small “task and finish” groups, each with a clearly defined remit; the outcomes of which feed into the curriculum development committee of the schools that has a strategic view of the entire process.

• It would be very useful in future to undertake qualitative research among teachers in order to further elucidate and understand curriculum innovation or change from their perspective. One of the underpinning philosophies of qualitative research from a social scientist’s perspective is the belief that human actions are strongly influenced by the settings in which they occur. Such a study or studies would assist in crystalising or developing context- bound generalizations.