• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.455-462
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to examine the curriculum components affecting the professionalism of dental hygienists and to explore what improvements should be done for each of the influential curriculum components to boost the belief and attitude of dental hygienists. The subjects in this study were 934 dental hygiene students, 76 dental hygiene professors, and 285 dental hygienists, on whom a survey was conducted in person, by mail and by e-mail from April 10 to June 12, 2009. The collected data from 1,295 respondents were analyzed. First, overall dental hygiene professionalism was predicted by intellectual development, vocational education, socio-culturalization, ethics and creativity, which were educational objectives of curriculum, and that didn't have a close relationship to interpersonal understanding and selfactualization. Second, overall dental hygienist professionalism was predicted by learning interest, learning possibility and the significance of subjects, which were selection criteria of teaching content, and that wasn't closely linked to the validity of subjects and social significance. Third, overall dental hygienist professionalism was predicted by continuity and integrity, which were organizing principles of teaching content, and that didn't have a strong relationship to sequence. Fourth, overall dental hygienist professionalism was predicted by the content of school evaluation and school evaluation criteria, which were evaluation elements of curriculum, and that wasn't closely linked to the method of school evaluation, the content of the national exam, the criteria of the national exam and the method of the national exam.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.533-542
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• 2017

This study aimed to develop a measure of professional identity for Korean dental hygienists and to analyze the factors and characteristics of professional identity of these dental hygienists. In this study, 890 dental hygienists completed a self-administered survey. The final analysis was conducted with a total of 880 responses, excluding 10 questionnaires with unreliable responses and partial responses. A systematic literature review was conducted to establish the definition of professional identity, while content validity, exploratory factor, confirmatory factor, and reliability analysis were conducted to establish the constructive factors. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, and one-way ANOVA were used to identify the level of each factor. Authors conceptualized the professional identity for Korean dental hygienists and item generation, item reduction, and questionnaire formatting. The developed measure of professional identity for dental hygienists consisted of five factors, with 15 items. "Sense of calling," "need for academic capacity building," "performance of delegated authority," "compliance of code of ethics," and "usage of professional organizations" were the constituent factors. Based on these factors, the level of professional identity was the highest in the "performance of delegated authority" and lowest in the "usage of professional organizations." These finding indicated that dental hygienists with higher education levels have higher professional identity levels. The dental hygienists working at the general/university hospital had the highest level of professional identity. Thus, further research is needed to establish a model that consists of factors affecting and influencing the professional identity of dental hygienists.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.103-108
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• 2012

A study was designed to evaluate the level of moral development in 450 pre-dental professionals of 2 educational institution in Jeollabukdo, Ik san city. Data were collected through self-reported questionnaires from October 2010. The Korean version of the DIT(Defining Issues Test) was adopted to evaluate level of moral development with the score of P(%) and stage. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson's correlation coefficient. The mean scores of P(%) was 43.10 in dental students and 41.21 in dental hygiene students(p=0.190). The score of stage 5A was highest which was followed by S3, S4, S6, S5B, S2. The score of stage 5B and 6 revealed sigificant difference by groups. The score of stage 6 revealed significant difference by sex in dental students(p=0.003). In dental hygiene students, it's significant difference by religion(S5B, p=0.044), birth order(S2, p=0.027) and growth area(S4, p=0.015). As for the correlations between moral development and the score of the stage, the score of P(%) was negatively correlated with the scores of stage 2, 3, 4 and 5B. On the other hand, the score of P(%) was positively correlated with the scores of stage 5A and 6. In conclusion, for enhancing dental students' moral development it is necessary a systemic ethics education and program development in curriculum.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.169-177
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of dental hygiene students on the components of the dental hygiene curriculum. The subjects in this study were 934 dental hygiene students, on whom a survey was conducted in April and Jun, 2009. The collected data were analyzed by the statistical package PASW 18.0. The findings of the study were as follows: The students from the midsection of the nation put the highest value on educational objectives, selection of what to teach and evaluation, and the students from the metropolitan area set the lowest value on those components. The students who took junior college courses took a better view of those components than those who took college courses. In terms of the organization of what to teach, the students from the midsection of the nation rated it highest, and the students from the Honam area rated it lowest. And those who took college courses took a little better view of it than the students who took junior college courses. Among the components of the curriculum, the educational objective factor was rated higher in terms of vocational education, morality and ethics, and that was rated lower in terms of creativity. The selection of what to teach was rated higher in terms of learning possibility and was rated lower in terms of content validity and relevance. The organization of what to teach was rated highest in terms of continuity, followed by sequence and integration. The educational evaluation factor was rated higher in the area of school evaluation and was rated lowest in the area of national examinations.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.9 no.10
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• pp.159-165
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• 2018

This study was conducted to investigate the convergence effects of key vocational competency on career decision making in dental hygiene students. To this end, 196 students with an experience of clinical field training, who were enrolled in the department of dental hygiene in universities of Busan and Ulsan area. The collected data were analyzed by frequency analysis, correlation analysis and linear regression analysis using SPSS 24.0 program. The subjects' awareness level of key vocational competency was 3.38 points, while that of career decision making was 3.30 points. Among the sub-factors of key vocational competency, the awareness level of professional ethics was 3.46 points, which was the highest. As factors of key vocational competency affecting career decision making, interpersonal skills(p<0.01), skills for understanding groups(p<0.01), resource management skills(p<0.01), self-development skills(p<0.05), problem-solving skills(p<0.05), and mathematical skills(p<0.05) were found to be significant. It is necessary to make student individual, departmental, and university level convergence efforts and to develop curriculum so that dental hygiene education can help students equip with the key vocational competency as well as major competency.