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Why choose the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Education
This course is relevant to dental care professionals working in the NHS, higher education, professional bodies and the private sector.
The course’s part-time, blended-learning approach helps you maintain your work/life balance.
Our healthcare courses (‘Allied to Medicine’) rank 11th overall in their subject field in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2024; they rank 2nd for engagement, with top 10 rankings for learning community, assessment and organisation.
About the course
This flexible course builds your skills as an educator, scholar and education leader able to support the development of dental care professionals, their teams and the wider organisation. It combines face-to-face, online and practice-based approaches to provide a rich range of learning, teaching and assessment opportunities, giving you the opportunity to deepen your understanding of dental educational practices and broaden your expertise in areas of particular interest.
Course accreditation
This course is accredited by the Academy of Medical Educators as meeting the professional standards for medical, dental and veterinary educators.
Facilities and specialist equipment
- 24/7 access to our library services with 194,000 e-books and 192,000 e-journals
- Guided learning materials and e-learning resources on the University’s virtual learning platform
Your student experience
The course is designed with the diverse educational roles and responsibilities of dental educators in mind, with a focus on contemporary practice.
Develop a critical, analytical and reflective approach to dental education and its practice, placing it within its historical and contemporary contexts.
Our research-active academic team are established medical and dental educators with experience across dental, medical and healthcare education; they have published widely in their fields, in journals including the British Dental Journal.
We have strong links with a broad range of employers across the region in the NHS, higher education and the private sector, helping to broaden your future prospects.
Benefit from being at a University with a successful track record of supporting those returning to study after long periods in the workplace or after a career break.
Our Bedford campus is a small, thriving academic community where academic staff get to know you well.
Course schedule
The PgCert Dental Education includes 2 units, over two semesters.*
| Time | Location | Date |
| 10:00 - 4:00 | Bedford campus | Fri 27/9/24 |
| 10:00 - 1:00 | Online | Mon 21/10/24 |
| 10:00 - 4:00 | Bedford campus | Tuesday 5/11/24 |
| 10:00 - 1:00 | Online | Wednesday 27/11/24 |
| Time | Location | Date |
| 10:00 - 4:00 | Bedford campus | Monday 20/1/25 |
| 10:00 - 1:00 | Online | Monday 10 /2/25 |
| 10:00 - 4:00 | Bedford campus | Friday 7/3/25 |
| 10:00 – 1:00 | Online | Friday 28/3/25 |
*All units are core, face to face contact takes place at Bedford campus, exact teaching rooms will be communicated via our online system (BREO) – dates may be subject to minor changes
Get in touch
For more information please contact the course lead Dr Hoda Wassif via email hoda.wassif@beds.ac.uk
Course Leader - Dr Hoda Wassif - Associate Professor in Medical & Dental Education
I am a Principal Lecturer in Medical & Dental Education and Portfolio Lead Pre-Professional & Continuing Health Education Portfolio, part of the School of Nursing and Health Education.
As portfolio lead, I offer academic leadership and support related to a range of courses in Pre-Professional and Continuing Health Education including; Advanced Nursing Practice, Nursing Associates, short courses in health systems as well as Medical & Dental Education.
What will you study?
Studying our Dental Education PgCert course will equip you with in-depth knowledge and skills in dental education and practice. Starting with our unit, Clinical Education in Practice, you will explore and develop strategies for teaching individuals and groups of learners across a range of settings. You will adopt an informed and innovative approach to becoming a dental educator by examining effective strategies for teaching, supporting learning and assessment.
To enhance your clinical teaching practice, you will critically analyse features of real, simulated and virtual learning environments while promoting best practice and innovation in your work as an educator. Moving on to our unit in Understanding Learning in the Workplace, you will explore the socio-political factors that influence the design, delivery and assessment of education and training. In doing so, you will develop an ability to critique the reform of education and training and familiarise yourself with the conceptions of work-based learning.
How will you be assessed?
The assessment strategy for the course combines formative and summative elements i.e assessment for learning and assessment of learning. It is designed to foster strong links between learning on the course and the lived realities of dental educators working in a range of clinical and academic contexts. It is also designed to enable you to evidence your achievement of standards for dental educators in order to satisfy requirements of professional bodies and organisations.
The choice of assessments is determined on the basis of their fitness for purpose i.e. to evidence achievement of unit learning outcomes at masters level (Level 7). However they also rehearse writing for a range of academic purposes; an early assessment point in Clinical Education in Practice unit is designed to rehearse writing in the reflective genre and Harvard referencing conventions. Later assessments move to writing in the academic genre within the traditions of the social sciences.
Increasing emphasis is placed on academic literacy and the ability to present complex ideas coherently with reference to appropriate literature. Plentiful opportunities are built in to the course to rehearse these skills e.g. exercises in problematising practice in assessing exemplars of actual (anonymised) assignments using the criteria we use on the course.
By modelling and analysing best practice in educational assessment you will gain confidence and skills in critiquing using and developing their own approaches to assessment. To enhance your understanding and experiences of assessment practices (relevant to your role as an educator) you will encounter a wide range of assessment methods.
Examples of assessment methods used across the course are: Reflective report writing (e.g. Clinical Education in Practice); critical appraisals (Understanding Learning in the Workplace; literature review (Understanding Learning in the Workplace) Teaching and Learning patchwork (Clinical Education in Practice)
Careers
You will be able to expand and develop your educational roles and responsibilities within your current employment. It also opens the way to more senior roles in education if you continue your academic studies and complete a postgraduate diploma or full Master’s in Dental Education.
