Comparison of past and current dental school curricula for dental students of National Taiwan University

Feng-Chou Cheng; Yi-Zhou He; Ling-Hsia Wang; Julia Yu-Fong Chang; Shiang-Yao Liu; Yung-Ta Chang; Chun-Pin Chiang

doi:10.1016/j.jds.2022.05.003

Comparison of past and current dental school curricula for dental students of National Taiwan University

J Dent Sci. 2022 Jul;17(3):1169-1179. doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2022.05.003. Epub 2022 May 18.

Authors

Feng-Chou Cheng^{1

2}, Yi-Zhou He¹, Ling-Hsia Wang³, Julia Yu-Fong Chang^{4

5

6}, Shiang-Yao Liu^{1

7}, Yung-Ta Chang¹, Chun-Pin Chiang^{4

5

8}

Affiliations

¹ School of Life Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
² Science Education Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Center for the Literature and Art, Hsin Sheng Junior College of Medical Care and Management, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁵ Graduate Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁶ Graduate Institute of Clinical Dentistry, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁷ Graduate Institute of Science Education, College of Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Dentistry, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Hualien, Taiwan.

Abstract

Background/purpose: The complete curriculum schedule of the School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University (NTU) appeared in 1960. This study aimed to understand the development of dental education in Taiwan by comparing the past and current dental school curricula of NTU.

Materials and methods: This study collected the 1960, 1990 and 2020 dental school curriculum schedules for dental students of NTU from the related websites and used the documentary and secondary data analyses to further compare the obtained data.

Results: The number of credits for all the curricula offered by NTU to undergraduate dental students decreased from 264 in 1960 to 243 in 1990 and further to 242 in 2020 with a total decrease of 22 credits by 8.3%. The number (proportion) of credits of medicine courses decreased from 102 (38.6%) in 1960 to 52 (21.4%) in 1990, and then increased to 60 (24.8%) in 2020, with a total decrease of 42 credits by 41.2%, while those of dentistry courses increased from 70 (26.5%) in 1960 to 122 (50.2%) in 1990 and further to 132 (54.5%) in 2020, with a total increase of 62 credits by 88.6%. Among them, clinical practice of dentistry had the greatest growth with a total increase of 42 credits by 233.3%.

Conclusion: The increase of dentistry courses and the decrease of medicine courses are the general trends for modern dental education. The dental school of NTU has the ability to provide more refined dentistry courses to catch the world trend of dental education.

Keywords: Clinical practice of dentistry; Dental education; Dental school curriculum; Dentistry courses; Medicine courses.