Dental Education
Exploring how oral health professional education can be delivered effectively in a wide range of contexts.
Examples of our areas of research include:
- methods of effective student recruitment and admission
- strategies for improving interprofessional education
- effective integrated approaches to patient care
- the delivery of effective continued professional development and lifelong learning
- developing student resilience and wellbeing
- exploring how to improve our student engagement
- the use of digital technologies for teaching operative clinical skills
Selected publications
- Davies, J. et al., 2023. ARTICULATE: A European glossary of terms used in oral health professional education. European Journal of Dental Education 27 (2), pp.209-222. (10.1111/eje.12794)
- Field, J. et al. 2022. Embedding environmental sustainability within oral health professional curricula- Recommendations for teaching and assessment of learning outcomes. European Journal of Dental Education (10.1111/eje.12852)
- Field, J. et al. 2022. O‐Health‐Edu: A vision for oral health professional education in Europe. European Journal of Dental Education (10.1111/eje.12819)
- Towers, A. et al., 2022. Combining virtual reality and 3D printed models to simulate patient-specific dental operative procedures - a study exploring student perceptions. European Journal of Dental Education 26 (2), pp.393-403. (10.1111/eje.12715)
- Duane, B. et al., 2021. Embedding environmental sustainability within the modern dental curriculum – Exploring current practice and developing a shared understanding. European Journal of Dental Education 25 (3), pp.541-549. (10.1111/eje.12631)
- Field, J. et al. 2021. Defining dental operative skills curricula: an ADEE consensus paper. European Journal of Dental Education 25 (2), pp.405-414. (10.1111/eje.12595)
- Dixon, J. et al., 2021. Re-defining the virtual reality dental simulator: demonstrating concurrent validity of clinically relevant assessment and feedback. European Journal of Dental Education 25 (1), pp.108-116. (10.1111/eje.12581)
- Dixon, J. et al., 2021. O-HEALTH-EDU: a scoping review on the reporting of oral health professional education in Europe. European Journal of Dental Education 25 (1), pp.56-77. (10.1111/eje.12577)
- Quinn, B. et al., 2020. COVID‐19: the immediate response of European academic dental institutions and future implications for dental education. European Journal of Dental Education 24 (4), pp.811-814. (10.1111/eje.12542)
Our research group is involved with the following research activities:
Research as a component of OHP Education
This project involves a wide range of educator stakeholders across Europe, and aims to develop consensus on a fifth Curriculum domain for the ‘Graduating European Dentist’ curriculum. This group’s PI is Professor James Field, in collaboration with the European Dental Students Association (EDSA), the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE), the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) and various pan-European academic partners.
Embedding environmental sustainability within oral health professional curricula
This project involves a wide range of educator stakeholders across Europe, and aims to develop consensus on learning outcomes relating to Sustainability in OHP curricula. This group’s PI is Professor James Field, in collaboration with the European Dental Students Association (EDSA), the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE), and various pan-European academic partners. This group has consulted for the General Dental Council, for inclusion in their review of learning outcomes, and presented to the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP).
Resilience and well-being in Dental Education
These two projects are being undertaken as a PhD by Ruby Long, with Professor James Field and Dr Liz Forty as academic supervisors, and as a Community of Practice by Shannu Bhatia. The projects aim to explore well-being and resilience within dental education; specifically how resilience is assessed and measured, and what tools can be developed to support the development of resilience in our students. The PhD project has received external funding from Immersify Dental, and the Community of Practice is supported by ADEE.
Human Diseases and the importance of complex medical histories in dental education
This series of studies is led by Dr Phil Atkin, and explores the importance of chairside learning in dental schools with respect to human diseases, and seeks to develop consensus in relation to human diseases teaching.
Comparison of Oral Surgery teaching across the UK
PI is Dr Charlotte Emanuel and Charlotte Richards.
O-Health-Edu
Developing a shared understanding of oral health professional education in Europe. PI is Professor James Field.
The use of 3D printing technologies for teaching operative dental skills
PI is Edward Williams, and Co-PI is Professor James Field.
The use of eye tracking in interpreting how students review dental radiographs
PI is Dr Caryl Wilson-Nagrani and Carlen Chandler.
Exploring the development of trust in special care dentistry trainee-supervisor relationships
PhD Study, Dr Damian Farnell.
Academic staff

Caryl Wilson-Nagrani
Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant in Orthodontics
- wilsonce@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29207 46810

Professor James Field
Professor of Restorative Dentistry and Dental Education / Honorary Consultant in Prosthodontics / National Teaching Fellow / Director of Learning and Teaching

Dr Robert McAndrew
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Theme lead for Dental Education, Scholarship and Innovation, Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant
- mcandrew@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29 2184 7090

Edward Williams
Clinical Lecturer in Restorative Dentistry
- Welsh speaking
- williamseo1@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2074 4665

Dr Charlotte Emanuel
Director of Assessment, Senior Clinical Lecturer in Oral Surgery
- emanuelc@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 29207 45029

Shannu Bhatia
Director of Staff and Student Matters, Senior Clinical Lecturer & Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Dentistry
- bhatiask@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2074 8277
Associated staff
Our group regularly hold ‘lunch and learn sessions’ relating to scholarship and education research.