Application of Soft Computing in the Assessment of Comprehensive Skills of First Year Dental Student

Professional education in dentistry exists to educate good dentists who are equipped and committed to helping society gain the benefits of oral health. In achieving this objective, dental educators acknowledge that student dentists must acquire the complex knowledge base and sophisticated perceptual-motor skills of dentistry. This study examined the validity of both cognitive and noncognitive factors used for the evaluation of the students in the reputed dental school of the Complutense University of Madrid. Interest in personality measurement and the prediction offered by personality measures has escalated and may be applied during the evaluation of dental students. Therefore, the study also assessed whether the addition of a personality measure would increase the validity of predicting performance beyond that achieved by PAU (the university admissions test) and the practical training period. The real data collected from a set of first year dental students was analyzed by using statistical and soft computing models. Results suggest that the questionnaire may be useful in identifying specific behavioural characteristics deemed important for success in dental training.