Each for Equal: Gender Inequity in Dentistry in Australia

2020 ◽  
pp. 238008442094216
Author(s):  
M. Silva ◽  
L. Teoh
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
State Level ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Gender Inequity ◽  
Balanced Leadership ◽  
National Body ◽  
Dental Profession ◽  
Male To Female

Objective: While there is an increasing number of women entering the dental profession, they are still underrepresented in leadership roles in major dental organizations, academia, and journal boards. Keynote and invited speaking roles in professional and scientific conferences recognize expertise and leadership and are key factors in career advancement and academic promotions. The aim of this study was to investigate gender differences in representation at dental continuing professional development (CPD) events and conferences in Australia. Methods: An analysis of the gender of speakers was conducted with CPD and conference programs that are publicly available online from the federal and Victorian branches of the Australian Dental Association, the peak national body for dentists. Results: The planned 2020 Victorian Branch CPD program featured 30 events, with a mean 2.5 speakers per event. There were 58 scientific presentations in the schedule, 22 (38%) of which were allocated to female speakers. Seven CPD events in 2020 included only female speakers, and 13 included only male speakers. The 37th and 38th Australian Dental Congresses featured 25% and 36% of female speakers, respectively. All keynote speakers were male for both events, and men accounted for 86% and 93% of international speakers. Conclusions: While women are approaching parity in local and state-level CPD events, there is a large discrepancy in the male-to-female speaker ratio for major national conferences. Suggestions to improve gender imbalance include having women on the convening committee and developing and implementing policies to address the imbalance. There has been significant progress in addressing gender inequity in dentistry, but gender-balanced leadership in major conferences still needs to be addressed. Knowledge Transfer Statement: The findings of this study show that while women may be approaching parity with small continuing professional development events, they are still underrepresented as speakers in major conferences. It is recommended that active policies be implemented to reduce the imbalance to ensure gender-balanced leadership in one aspect of the dental profession in Australia.

Classroom Observation for the Professional Development of Myanmar University Lecturers in a Singapore Cross-Cultural Context: Perception of Abilities and Learning Based on ‘Nine Events of Instruction’

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 40-49
Author(s):  
Siew Hong Lam
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Classroom Observation ◽  
Continuing Professional Development ◽  
Educational Background ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Potential Applicability ◽  
Pedagogical Framework ◽  
Events Of Instruction

Abstract Continuing professional development is important for improving and reforming teaching.Classroom observation of others’ teaching has been used for the professional development of eight lecturers from three Myanmar universities who visited the Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore over a period of three weeks.To bridge the socio-cultural and educational background differences, Gagné’s ‘Nine events of instruction’ was used as a pedagogical framework to guide and evaluate the classroom observation and learning as it is well-established for instructional design and resonate well with educators.This study aimed to evaluate the participants’ abilities and their learning through classroom observation based on their perceptions of the ‘nine events of instruction’.The study found that most of the participants have positive views of their abilities in relation to the ‘nine events’, especially in practicing the early events of instruction. The classroom observation has benefitted them with respect to the ‘nine events’, particularly ‘Informing the Students of the Objective/Outcome’, ‘Stimulating Recall of the Prior Knowledge’ and ‘Presenting Information/Content/Stimulus’.Notably, ‘Assessing Performance’ was the most perceived ‘event of instruction’ that the participants wanted to improve on and that the participants perceived will benefit Myanmar lecturers the most.Qualitative feedbacks by the participants revealed lessons learned, their potential applicability and desires to reform and share.The study further demonstrated that the ‘nine events of instruction’ is a useful pedagogical framework for guiding and evaluating perception of abilities and learning in classroom instruction and observation for continuing professional development in a cross-cultural context.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document