Helps students see the bigger picture.
Dr. Lee Adam is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Research in the Department of Oral Sciences within the Faculty of Dentistry at the University of Otago. She holds qualifications including a BEd, DipTeach, PGDipArts (Education), and PhD. Her academic career at the University of Otago centers on advancing teaching and learning practices in higher education, with a particular emphasis on dental and oral health education. She also serves as Principal Adviser and Director of Academic Integrity at the institution, contributing to policies and practices that support student retention, success, and ethical conduct.
Dr. Adam's research specializations include students' learning experiences and outcomes in higher education, informing policy for retention and success, improving teaching practices, students’ understandings of plagiarism, effective feedback processes in clinical dental education, and dental students' stress and wellbeing. Her expertise extends to qualitative research methods, academic integrity, and dental education. Key publications demonstrate her impact: “It’s not fair”: Policy discourses and students’ understandings of plagiarism in a New Zealand university (Adam, Anderson, Spronken-Smith, 2016, Higher Education); Evaluate to improve: Useful approaches to student evaluation (Golding, Adam, 2014, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education); Student perspectives on plagiarism (Adam, 2015, The Springer Handbook of Academic Integrity). Other significant works include The relationship between professional and commercial obligations in dentistry: a scoping review (Holden, Adam, Thomson, 2020, British Dental Journal); Oral health and dental students’ perceptions of their clinical learning environment: A focus group study (Ebbeling et al., 2018, Journal of Dental Education); Advancing dental education: feedback processes in the clinical learning environment (Adam, Oranje, Rich, Meldrum, 2020, Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand); and recent contributions such as Interactive e-learning lessons in patient-centred interview (Olson et al., 2026, IIUM Journal of Orofacial & Health Sciences) and Nutrition education and practice in university dental and oral health programmes and curricula: A scoping review (Kataoka et al., 2025, European Journal of Dental Education). She received the Undergraduate Research Supervisor Award from the Sir John Walsh Research Institute in 2019. Her scholarship influences pedagogical improvements and professional ethics in dentistry and higher education.
