Assessing Senior Dental Students’ Mindful Engagement in Dental Modelling as Part of Practical Training: Evaluation of Students’ Opinions

Subject. This paper studies hand skills of students' educational and research activities. Objective. The study aims to evaluate the mindful engagement of senior dental students in dental practice, self-directed learning (and student opinion analysis), assessment of the knowledge level regarding enhancement of tooth preparation hand skills. Methodology. The study is conducted by the Department of Therapeutic Dentistry and Propaedeutics of Dental Diseases at Ural State Medical University. The research objects are: 1 – the survey that has three parts; 2 – volunteers from dental students of Ural State Medical University. To achieve the research goals 46 students of Dental Institute of Ural State Medical University (17 males, 29 females, with the mean age of 21.75 ±1.5 years) were surveyed after completion of their practical course. With this, all study participants accepted that survey results and their opinions would be subjected to evaluation with consideration of interesting suggestions in further activities of the department for enhancement of learning process for the practical practice protocol and possible corrective measures. Conclusions. Assessment of mindful engagement of senior dental students in dental practice, self-directional learning, student opinion analysis, assessment of the knowledge level regarding enhancement of tooth preparation hand skills in the module of Endodontics allowed to identify the most challenging issues, focus on strengths and weaknesses at work, get feedback from the students based on their perspective on important ways to improve education in the discipline-specific course.