Team-based learning as public health teaching methodology in undergraduate dentistry

Abstract

The present study presents a study of the teaching method in dentistry in front of the introduction of an active methodology for the pedagogical practice in collective health in the course of dentistry. The proposal offered to discuss the unique characteristics of higher education in order to evaluate the use of team-based learning as a methodological teaching strategy. The evaluation methodology included two steps, being non-participant observation, where there is passive positioning of the researcher and field research. In the first one the theoretical reference was based with definition of orientations, principles and fundamentals of the technique; in the second moment, records in field diary and application of structured interview script based on a critical-dialectic approach. The sample was made up of 150 undergraduate dental students during the years 2014 to 2016. The results made it possible to understand that the use of the active methodology stimulates the protagonist participation of the student in the learning process with re-signification of the knowledge and possibility of immediate evaluation of knowledge.