ArticleJournal of dental education2026
The Effects of Mandatory Attendance on the Students' Overall Performance in an Operative Dentistry Preclinical Course: A Retrospective Study.
Article in Journal of dental education, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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3 authors.
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Abstract
PURPOSE/
objectivesTo evaluate the effects of mandatory attendance on the theoretical and practical grades of two consecutive classes in the Operative Dentistry II preclinical course at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM).
methodsThe theoretical and practical grades of students from two consecutive academic years were extracted and analyzed without any identifying information. For the theoretical portion, the final grade was used (45% midterm, 45% final exam, and 10% quizzes). For the practical component, the average of the three competency assessments was considered, along with performance on each competency separately. Data were statistically analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn tests (α = 0.05).
resultsStudents in the year with mandatory attendance showed significantly higher performance in both theoretical and average practical grades (p < 0.001). The median (interquartile intervals) theoretical grade was 91.380 (86.957-95.205) in the non-mandatory group and 93.825 (88.730-96.930) in the mandatory group. For the practical component, medians were 78.333 (73.333-83.333) and 82.5 (79.5-86.25), respectively. When competencies were analyzed individually, no statistically significant difference was found for the second and third procedures (p = 0.153 and 0.619), but the non-mandatory group performed significantly better in the first competency (p = 0.003).
conclusionWithin the conditions of this Operative Dentistry II preclinical course, mandatory attendance was associated with higher overall performance in both theoretical and practical assessments. However, when individual competencies were analyzed separately, results varied, suggesting that the impact of mandatory attendance may not be uniform across all skill areas.
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