Resumo

GABRIEL, Mariana  e  TANAKA, Elisa Emi. Professional dentistry training: students' perception of curricular interaction. Rev. ABENO [online]. 2011, vol.11, n.1, pp. 19-22. ISSN 1679-5954.

A change in Brazil's Dentistry curriculum is long overdue. Its teaching model should be geared toward the job market, in which the student can associate technical expertise with critical thinking. In 2005, there was a change from the traditional Flexnerian to the transdisciplinary curriculum at the State University of Londrina, guided by the National Curriculum Guidelines of 2002, the aim of which was to enable students to interconnect the concepts and specific needs of each case. In order to ascertain students' perceptions of curriculum changes, a survey with questions taken from the National Survey of Student Performance (ENADE) was applied to fifth year Dentistry students (n=148) from the first and second class of the transdisciplinary curriculum and from the last class of the traditional curriculum. The results were analyzed and quantified by SPSS version 15.0 and Excel 2007 statistical software that allowed cross referencing the data from the three classes and making a comparative analysis. At a time of renewal such as this, the variations between classes have made it possible to identify some changes, such as the progress made in joint operations with different professional areas, greater understanding of processes, professional decision making and problem solving. This progress is not just a methodological change, but a transformation in the teaching culture of the institution, still being constructed through actions designed to guide necessary adjustments for an effective integrated curriculum.

Palavras-chave : Education; Dental; Educational Measurement; Students; Dental.