Instructional Strategies to Manage Cognitive Load in Orthodontics

Introduction: Medical Education has recently taken its position in Health professional education, however still it is not very popular in Dentistry, though professional are working hard to apply its principals. In the recent past Orthodontic education has been revolutionized and instructional strategies and designs to reduce the cognitive load and improve learner’s germane load have been employed. However literature discusses educationist`s perspective while student`s perspective regarding this have not been explored much. Aim of this study is to assess student`s perspective about different instructional strategies discussed through examples used to manage cognitive load in Orthodontic Education. Materials and Method: The study was conducted through a 14 instrument questionnaire on a sample consisted of Sixty Six final year BDS students (12 males and 44 females) from University College of Dentistry, The University of Lahore. Results: Student`s perspective through orthodontic examples for instructional strategies to manage cognitive load was assessed. Dental students reported positively to all questions in the questionnaire except the question regarding Goal free principle.Results: Different instructional strategies to reduce extrinsic load, manage intrinsic load and optimize germane load through examples from orthodontic syllabi have been given. Conclusion: Student`s perspective as assessed through questionnaire is mostly in accordance with the literature, except for goal free principle where only 25.75% student responded that this instructional strategy will improve learning.