Biomaterial Database

Planned change and the future of the dental education system. 1986

B Gerbert

Dentistry today faces an environment that clearly requires changes in dental education. Future dentists must be prepared to deal with new patterns of dental disease, revised manpower requirements, and new developments in the nature of dental practice. The dental education system can best adapt to this situation by initiating a process of planned change. A well-developed literature in this area provides both a theoretical framework and a practical approach that the dental education system can follow in its planning process. In this paper, the principles of planned change are interpreted in the context of dental schools' characteristic structure, goals, leadership, and communication mechanisms. The traits of successful change and specific strategies for achieving it are offered as a means for the dental education system to build with confidence a productive and healthy future.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009937	Organizational Objectives	The purposes, missions, and goals of an individual organization or its units, established through administrative processes. It includes an organization's long-range plans and administrative philosophy.	Goal Setting, Organizational,Goals, Organizational,Objectives, Organizational,Organizational Goals,Goal Settings, Organizational,Goal, Organizational,Objective, Organizational,Organizational Goal,Organizational Goal Setting,Organizational Goal Settings,Organizational Objective,Setting, Organizational Goal,Settings, Organizational Goal
D003657	Decision Making	The process of making a selective intellectual judgment when presented with several complex alternatives consisting of several variables, and usually defining a course of action or an idea.	Credit Assignment,Assignment, Credit,Assignments, Credit,Credit Assignments
D003813	Dentistry	The profession concerned with the teeth, oral cavity, and associated structures, and the diagnosis and treatment of their diseases including prevention and the restoration of defective and missing tissue.
D004497	Education, Dental	Use for articles concerning dental education in general.	Dental Education
D005246	Feedback	A mechanism of communication within a system in that the input signal generates an output response which returns to influence the continued activity or productivity of that system.	Feedbacks
D005544	Forecasting	The prediction or projection of the nature of future problems or existing conditions based upon the extrapolation or interpretation of existing scientific data or by the application of scientific methodology.	Futurology,Projections and Predictions,Future,Predictions and Projections
D006126	Group Processes	The procedures through which a group approaches, attacks, and solves a common problem.	Group Meetings,Group Process,Group Thinking,Group Meeting,Group Thinkings,Meeting, Group,Process, Group,Thinking, Group
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012570	School Admission Criteria	Requirements for the selection of students for admission to academic institutions.	Student Selection,Admission Criteria, School,Criteria, School Admission,Selection, Student,Selections, Student,Student Selections
D012575	Schools, Dental	Educational institutions for individuals specializing in the field of dentistry.	Dental Schools,Dental School,School, Dental