Advancing clinical integration in undergraduate dental education through AI-enabled instructional design: a qualitative thematic analysis
MEDICAL EDUCATION ONLINE, cilt.31, sa.1, ss.1-16, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Cilt numarası: 31 Sayı: 1
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1080/10872981.2026.2750709
- Dergi Adı: MEDICAL EDUCATION ONLINE
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO), Social Science Premium Collection (ProQuest), Biomedical Reference Collection: Corporate Edition (EBSCO), Health Research Premium Collection (ProQuest), Scopus, Sociology Database (ProQuest), Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), EMBASE, MEDLINE, Directory of Open Access Journals
- Sayfa Sayıları: ss.1-16
- Açık Arşiv Koleksiyonu: AVESİS Açık Erişim Koleksiyonu
- Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Background: Despite growing interest in artificial intelligence (AI) in health professionseducation, qualitative evidence for integarting AI-supported instructional redesign onteaching practices and students' experiences in undergraduate dental educationremains limited. The aim of this study was to explore the educational impact of AI-supported instructional redesign of lessons in undergraduate dental education.Methods: We conducted this inductive qualitative thematic analysis in an under-graduate dental education setting. Existing lessons were redesigned using AI-supported recommendations to strengthen alignment between learning objectives,authentic clinical contexts, and expected clinical outcomes. Data were collectedthrough classroom observations and students’ focus group discussions. An inductivethematic analysis was performed, and findings from multiple data sources were curated,collecetd, and triangulated to enhance credibility.Results: AI-supported instructional redesign transformed teaching by promotingauthentic clinical scenarios, clinically oriented discussions, and explicit reasoning activi-ties. Thematic analysis identified four interconnected themes: (1) a shift from teacher-centred knowledge delivery to facilitation of clinical reasoning; (2) transformation frompassive attendance to active cognitive engagement; (3) building clinical meaningthrough authentic clinical contexts and collaborative dialogue; and (4) creating condi-tions for professional learning through psychological safety. AI functioned as a peda-gogical design-support tool rather than replacing the educators’ instructional role.Overall, the observed educational changes appeared to arise primarily from the peda-gogical redesign enabled by AI-supported planning rather than from students' directinteraction with AI.Conclusion: This study endorses the role of AI-supported instructional redesign inenriching the existing undergraduate dental curriculum. This approach can potentiallyhelp educators align learning objectives, instructional strategies, and authentic clinicalcontexts. The reported educational modifications reflect primarily the implementationof learner-centred and clinically oriented pedagogical strategies, with AI functioning asa design-support mechanism rather than as a direct instructional agent.