Curricular framework analysis demonstrates the risk of AI-induced never-skilling in dental education, highlighting the need for staged integration to protect core clinical reasoning.
Key Points
Applies the concepts of 'upskilled', 'differently skilled', and 'never skilled' to dental education to determine their implications for curriculum design, student assessment, and institutional governance.
Conducted a conceptual framework analysis evaluating the pedagogical consequences of integrating artificial intelligence into European dental education programs.
Examined learning mechanisms where automated cognitive processing risks impeding the development of independent clinical reasoning.
Characterizes 'never skilled' outcomes as progression through training without acquiring foundational biomedical knowledge or clinical reasoning due to premature reliance on automated systems.
Defines 'upskilled' and 'differently skilled' learners as clinicians who maintain strong foundational competence and leverage artificial intelligence through contextual judgement and ethical reasoning.
Recommends a staged curriculum that requires explicit artificial intelligence-independent milestones before introducing guided collaboration and separate educational governance frameworks.