Global citizenship in dentistry

Abstract

In dentistry, developing global citizenship and intercultural communication among students is becoming increasingly important. Knowing different practices and school of thoughts as well as being able to communicate properly with different people are essential part of dental education. The University of Hong Kong partnered with four universities in different continents to develop the Global Citizenship in Dentistry (GCD) project. The objectives of the GCD are to internationalize the curriculum, to support student virtual mobility, to develop the dental students’ global citizenship, and to leverage diversity among students from worldwide. In this GCD project, students from different universities were assigned to focus groups to work on internationalizing the knowledge base of curriculum on restorative dentistry. They participated online activities, prepared a portfolio and shared their knowledge of restorative dentistry in the project. The students introduced themselves to other students. Then they presented of an operative procedure, and justified and substantiated their work with references. They also participated in peer reviews by giving constructive qualitative comments on each other’s work. Briefing sessions were provided to support students to develop essential knowledge and skills in restorative treatment. They also had workshops to help them to achieve the learning outcomes. In conclusion, this GCD program opens free dialogue between the students to establish a comfortable rapport allowing them to learn and grow from each other. It also allows international student collaboration through their participation in peer reviews of each other’s clinical work and group participation in case based tutorials in different dental disciplines.