Regular Testing to Enhance Learning Outcomes in Macroscopic Anatomy in Dental Education

BACKGROUND: Anatomy education is fundamental to competent and reliable dental practice, yet effective strategies to enhance learning and long-term retention remain debated. Regular formative assessment may support learning through several mechanisms, including retrieval practice, repeated exposure to course content, and more distributed studying, but its impact in oral macroscopic anatomy education remains insufficiently explored. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study compared four cohorts of second-year dental students at the University of Oslo (N = 205). Two cohorts received the standard teaching without interim assessments (no-regular-testing group; n = 101), while two cohorts received the same teaching and additionally completed three mandatory formative assessments during a 6-week anatomy module (regular-testing group; n = 104). All students completed an identical 150-task test immediately after the teaching period and a cumulative practical examination four weeks later. Performance across anatomical domains was analyzed using generalized linear mixed-effects models. RESULTS: The regular-testing group demonstrated significantly higher performance on the 150-task post-teaching test across all domains (overall score: 71.8% vs. 53.6%, p < 0.001), with the largest gains observed in myology and neurology. At the final examination 4 weeks later, descriptive performance remained generally higher in the regular-testing group across most tasks and anatomical domains, although the substantial initial performance advantage had diminished. CONCLUSION: Regular formative assessment was associated with substantially improved short-term performance in dental anatomy education. Although the initial advantage diminished over time, mean performance remained generally higher in the regular-testing group at the final examination. These findings support regular formative assessment as a potentially valuable component of anatomy education, while the contribution of retrieval practice cannot be separated from other mechanisms associated with repeated mandatory assessment.