Correlation of psychomotor skills and didactic performance among dental students in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Objectives

The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between the psychomotor skills and the academic performance of dental students.

Methods

Didactic and preclinical scores were collected for students who graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2011. Three courses (Dental Anatomy, Removable Prosthodontic Denture, and Orthodontics) were selected. Correlations comparing didactic and practical scores were done for the total samples, then for the males and females separately.

Results

There was no significant correlation between the practical and didactic scores for the three courses for the total sample. There was a significant correlation between all three subjects in the didactic scores. For females, the results showed that there was only a significant correlation between the practical and didactic scores for Dental Anatomy. For males, no correlation was observed between the practical and didactic scores for all subjects.

Conclusion

In the present sample, didactic performance did not correlate well with the students’ psychomotor performance.

Keywords:

• psychomotor performance
• didactic performance
• dental students
• correlation study
• dental education
• practical performance

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.