title: 2.3 Towards global convergence of education, training, quality, outcome and assessment.
abstract: The purpose of this section's report is to propose strategies which will help those committed to promoting and implementing higher standards in dental education. There is a wide variety of systems throughout the world. These systems are developed, governed, operated and applied differently. Their standards, whether they are controlled by governments (federal and/or state), councils, universities or professional organizations are frequently determined cooperatively with dental educators, so that there is often some agreement among interested constituencies as to the content and application of the standards. These standards, whether they be called 'accreditation standards"requirements' or 'guidelines' (formal or informal), or written as laws or statutes reflect a region's history, traditions, culture and socio-economic realities. The emphasis in this report will be on the development of an organic or growing electronic database containing worldwide information relating to standards in dental education. This database might contain or be linked with similar sources detailing, inter alia, best practices, innovations and core values as they relate to the convergence of standards in education, professional training, continuous quality analysis, assessment and outcome. The linking of such a database to others containing electronic curricular modules, clinical management and practice information needs to be further developed.
authors.affiliation: University of Missouri at Kansas City, USA.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Noel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Claffey
authors.forename: Bill
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Josie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beeley
authors.forename: Phyllis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Beemsterboer
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Carrassi
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Filippi
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Licari
authors.forename: Claus
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Munck
authors.forename: Gábor
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nagy
authors.forename: Marwan Abou
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Rass
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sanz
authors.forename: Eugene
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sekiguchi
authors.forename: Grant
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Townsend
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation / Q000592:standards; D003195:Computer Communication Networks; D003479:Curriculum; D016208:Databases, Factual; D003906:Developing Countries; D004497:Education, Dental / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000379:methods; D012575:Schools, Dental / Q000592:standards; D017749:Total Quality Management