Use of “The Price is Right” gameshow to teach practice management principles to predoctoral dental students

Abstract

Educating dental students requires innovative teaching methods, as faculty are increasingly expected to be more than just the “sage on the stage” and provide more entertaining guidance for their class.¹ There is a call for tools that actively engage students in the learning process and make classes more interactive.² Games are a form of active learning because they require students to engage in a competitive activity with specified rules for the purpose of learning relevant material.³ Educational games can foster collaboration and critical thinking among peers.⁴ Utilizing games increases the interactive nature of the lecture process, which allows for lasting improvement in student learning.

While preparing predoctoral dental students for clinic and their future in clinical practice, it is important that they grasp the significant economic realities of the business of dentistry. To prepare business-ready students, they must learn to spend money wisely. Dental equipment and supplies are a significant part of the cost of the practice of dentistry. Simply presenting a list of costs is valuable, but not as impactful as an interactive method of reviewing this information. When we control costs, everyone benefits. An efficiently run practice benefits patients from an access-to-care standpoint, since without profit, there is no practice. The learning objective of this activity was to have the students develop a deeper understanding of the costs of practicing clinical dentistry while creating an engaging and collaborative environment in which to learn.

To create an interactive student experience to expose them to this information, the author proposed to use the gameshow “The Price is Right” as an activity to allow the entire class to join in understanding the significant costs of dental supplies and equipment. The author collaborated with a dental supply company to provide products for demonstration and prices for equipment and supplies. The “Price is Right” activity was presented as part of a preclinical practice management course in the second-year predoctoral curriculum.

To assess student perceptions of the activity, a five-question beliefs survey was developed after a review of the survey instrument used by Friedrich et al.⁵The questionnaire included five author-developed statements about the participants’ beliefs regarding student engagement from game-based learning. Respondents indicated their agreement or disagreement with the statements according to a four-point Likert scale. The electronic survey was distributed to 120 dental students via a secure Canvas learning management system (Qualtrics). A reminder announcement was sent via the secure Canvas site at a one-week interval and the survey remained open for two weeks. Data were collected in June 2024. The survey collected anonymous responses and had a response rate of 73.3% (n = 88).

Dental student engagement in the “Price is Right” activity was exceptional. Twelve dental students were on stage directly as contestants and the entire class of 120 students was involved as collaborative, encouraging audience members. During the activity, participant students considered the costs of each item with the encouragement and support of their fellow students in the audience.

All students overwhelmingly indicated that the activity was a fun and engaging way to learn and contributed to collaborative learning with their classmates (Table 1). The students expressed that they developed a deeper understanding of the business realities of practicing dentistry while having fun at the same time. Students expressed that game-based learning was a useful addition to their education (Table 1). The “Price is Right” gameshow was a successful activity to teach practice management, and the students list this as one of their favorite lectures.