Dental Students’ Perceptions on the Value of Self-Assessment Skill

Self-assessment skill is an important tool for the students to become an effective learner and this skill should be taught to the students. The aim of this study is to investigate the perception of the dental students towards the value of self-assessment skill in their life. A questionnaire was constructed consisting of 14 items. It was validated and pre-tested before being distributed to 3 groups of dental students (Year 2, 3 and 4). The results found that most of the students were aware about the importance of selfassessment for their dental training and had positive attitudes towards practicing self-assessment for skill. More than 80% of the students agreed on the benefits of practicing self-assessment in their clinical training. However, compared to Year 2, the Year 4 students were not so keen to use the self-assessment form unless asked to do so and this difference in response was significant. The results from this study will be used to plan a systematic way of assisting students to develop and practice self-assessment as a pre-requisite to acquire self-directed and lifelong learning skills.