Ahmad Jafari, Hajar Ahmadi, Maryam Safarnavadeh, Abbas Taher-

Abstract

Introduction: It is very important to use new teaching and learning methods and strategies. A study guide is one of these methods. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of study guide in practical community dentistry.Methods and Materials: Fifty dental students of Tehran School of Dentistry who were passing their second course of practical community dentistry were included in this semi-experimental study. They were included in the study by census method and were divided into two groups of case and control according to the alphabetical order of their names. In the control group, the second course of practical community dentistry was offered as training in a school as usual, whereas in the case group, the previous method was combined with a study guide. Data was gathered using a questionnaire and analysis was done using the Pearson chi-square and Fisher’s exact test. The level of significance was 0.05.Results: Improvement of knowledge and performance in the case group was significant compared to the control group. They paid attention more to professional ethics (p=0.003), their appearance (p=0.020), role-playing in instructing oral health (p=0.001), evaluating the knowledge of children (p=0.033), making a better connection with children (p=0.010), and their teaching assessment (p=0.008).Conclusion: This supplemental teaching method will gain its important aims like improvement of student's knowledge and practice while making them interested in the study guide‎.