Meeting report for March 2018
Minutes of the AGM of the 2017 / 2018 session held in Lecture Theatre 2 GDH on Tuesday 20th March 2018 commencing at 7pm.
There were 59 members and guests in attendance. Apologies were received from two members.
The President started the meeting by thanking the Society and the Council for their support during his year of office.
The minutes of the previous AGM (2017) were approved.
The President then asked the Treasurer and the Secretary to give their reports which they did so. The new members of the council were elected en bloc.
President: Mr Roderick Black
Vice President: Mr Will McLean
Past President: Professor Jeremy Bagg
Hon. President: Mr Grant McLennan
Hon. V. President: Mr Jack Murphy
Editor: Dr M.E. Watt
Secretary: Ms Fiona Mackenzie
Treasurer: Mr Frazer Murphy
Scrutineers: Mr A.M.Hadden, Mr D. M. Still
Council
Dr Maria Tumelty
Mr Lewis Olsson
Mr Callum Wemyss
Ms Joanna Morrison
Advisor to Council: Mr Stephen Jacobs
The President then thanked outgoing members of council Ms Laura Bryce and Mr Yas Aljubouri, the outgoing honorary president Mr Harry Critchlow and introduced the new President, Mr Roderick Black.
Mr Black said his first task was to thank the Immediate Past President for his work on behalf of the society. He then presented him with his Past Presidents medal. He then thanked the membership for his election.
The President then asked Professor Bagg to introduce the speaker, Professor Vince Bissell, and asked him to give his address to the society ‘Assessment in Dental Education: Is there a problem?’
Professor Bissell began by reflecting on his career thus far and his recent move from Glasgow Dental Hospital and School to University of Liverpool’s School of Dentistry where he is the Dean of the School of Dentistry and Professor and Honorary Consultant in Restorative Dentistry.
Professor Bissell introduced the GDC’s ‘Preparing for Practice’ guidance document and discussed the challenges of preparing the undergraduates for independent practice.
Professor Bissell reflected on standardization, objective questions, blue printing and standard setting as ideas behind improving assessment in dental education and introduced Cees van der Vleuten and his work on assessment to the audience.
Professor Bissell then spent time defining validity and discussing the theory behind it. He asked the questions what does it mean to claim an assessment is valid and how can a validity claim be substantiated? Professor Bissell referenced extensively throughout his presentation including authors such as Lee Cronbach, Samuel Messick and Michael T Kane.
He then went on to discuss difference assessment types and the inferences associated with each including OSCEs and Work Place Based Assessments. He reminded the audience that clinical practice is not standardized and that competence is dependent on context and that we must look at whole programmes and not individual assessments. He discussed Liftup and debated the difference between feedback and assessment, taking the audience through the literature and the challenges of giving and receiving feedback.
Finally Professor Bissell summarized with final comments on the literature and a reflection on his own learning thus far in his career.
The Speaker was happy to answer questions. The vote of thanks was then proposed by Mr Lee Savarrio who thanked the speaker for his excellent, informed, thought provoking lecture and high quality presentation.
The President then informed the audience of the coming year’s syllabus starting On Tuesday 23th October 2018. He reminded the audience of the Twitter and Facebook presence of the society and closed the meeting at 8.40pm.