The learning experience of basic science and clinical dentistry by postgraduate students in Institute of Clinical Dentistry and Institute of Oral Biology

Background/purpose: Students with different undergraduate trainings may have different responses after taking a combined course with both clinical and basic topics. This study investigated the learning experience of basic science and clinical dentistry by postgraduate students in Institute of Clinical Dentistry (ICD) and Institute of Oral Biology (IOB) after finishing the specific course. Materials and methods: Semi-structure questionnaire filled by internet process was used. The data were collected and analyzed statistically. Results: Nineteen participants who took the course of “panel discussion of oral oncology” since 2014 to 2018 were included in this study. Of the 19 postgraduate students, 11 were from ICD and 8 from IOB. Both ICD and IOB students gave high scores for the items such as benefit for the research, appropriateness of the discussion topics, and suitableness of problem-based teaching model. ICD students tended to have better fitness of interdisciplinary learning (P > 0.05), better understanding of clinical topics (significant, P = 0.02), and a higher willing to recommend other students to take the course (P > 0.05) than IOB students. However, IOB students tended to have a better understanding of basic science topics than ICD students, although the difference was not significant (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Our problem-based and constructive teaching course and the selected topics are proper and helpful for students’ future research. The students with the clinical training background are prone to have better understanding of clinical topics, while those with the basic science training tend to have better understanding of basic science topics.