Stress Coping Skills Programme In “tudeŶts CuƌƌiĐuluŵ NJIRM 2013; Vol. 4(5)Sept- Oct eISSN: 0975-9840 pISSN: 2230 - 9969 149 Implementation Of Stress Coping Skills Programme IŶ DeŶtal StudeŶts’ Curriculuŵ To Iŵprove The Validity Of Their AssessŵeŶt Rajeev Saxena*, Ravi V Shirahatti**, Chinmay shah***, Mukhit Kazi*, Ashwini Bhosale****, Ladkat Savita*****, Devendra Panchawadkar*****,Shrikant Diwanay***** *Department of Microbiology, **Department of Public Health Dentistry, A. B. Shetty Dental College, Manglore. ***Department of Physiology, Government Medical College, Bhavnagar, Gujarat. ****Sinhgad Dental College and Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India. *****Department of Pathology, Sinhgad Dental College and Hospital Pune, Maharashtra, India Abstract: The key dictum to build reliability (and validity) for any assessment is to have multiple tests on multiple content areas by multiple examiners using multiple tools in multiple settings. Moreover, stress coping skills will have positive impact on all the domains which in turn give a boost to positive tendencies, viz., increasing their attentiveness in class, concentration, and learning and thereby reduce the altered performance due to stress. As a result, the CIV (noise in the assessment) is reduced and hence the validity of assessment is improved. Psychologist and Psychometricians are to be appointed in every institute. [Saxena R et al NJIRM 2013; 4(5) : 149-158] Key Words: Stress, Dental Students, Curriculum, Validity, Assessment Author for correspondence: Dr.Rajeev Saxena, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Sinhgad Dental College and Hospital, Pune, Maharashtra, India Email: rajeevsaxenak2010@gmail.com Introduction: A description of setting and the assessment problem: Medical entrance examination in India tests only the subject knowledge of the candidates. Communication skills, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, attitude, ethics, values and language proficiency (education in schools is mostly in regional language whereas in medical colleges, it is in English) are not tested. On admission to the medical course, the selected candidates are under heavy pressure of high expectations of performance. The resulting stress has a negative impact on all the three domains; cognitive, psycho-motor and affective. As a consequence, they are unable to perform at optimal levels in their examinations. Their altered performance creates Construct Irrelevant Variance (CIV) which poses a threat to validity in all types of assessment. In all methods of assessment, the biggest threats to validity are due to construct under representation and construct irrelevant variance predictably poor stress coping skills of the students are also one of the contributing factors for threats to validity, because stress badly affects all domains1. Moreover, the environment prevailing in medical institutions is not stress free, as may be seen from high tuition fees; poor hostel, recreation, library facilities. Teachers are not trained in Medical Education Technology. Add to this the woes of low pay packets and very poor teacher–student ratio. Poor teacher –student ratio is the main constraint for quality assessment. Flow chart 1: Schematic representation of effect of stress on validity of assessment Modern techniques of assessment, viz., OSPE & OSCE require more teachers for assessment. There is no mentorship programme for selected students who are facing the challenge of the new learning