ABSTRACT
Background: The modernization of clinical teaching has called for the creation of faculty development programs, and the design of suitable instruments to evaluate clinical teachers performance. Aim: To report the development and validation of an instrument in Spanish designed to measure the students perceptions of their clinical teachers performance and to provide them with feedback to improve their teaching practices. Material and Methods: In a process that included the active participation of authorities, professors in charge of courses and internships, clinical teachers, students and medical education experts, we developed a 30-item questionnaire called MEDUC30 to evaluate the performance of clinical teachers by their students. The internal validity was assessed by factor analysis of 5,214 evaluations of 265 teachers, gathered from 2004 to 2007. The reliability was measured with the Cronbachs alpha coefficient and the generalizability coefficient (g). Results: MEDUC30 had good content and construct validity. Its internal structure was compatible with four factors: patient-centered teaching, teaching skills, assessment skills and learning climate, and it proved to be consistent with the structure anticipated by the theory. The scores were highly reliable (Cronbachs alpha: 0.97); five evaluations per teacher were sufficient to reach a reliability coefficient (g) of 0.8. Conclusions: MEDUC30 is a valid, reliable and useful instrument to evaluate the performance of clinical teachers. To our knowledge, this is the first instrument in Spanish for which solid validity and reliability evidences have been reported. We hope that MEDUC30 will be used to improve medical education in Spanish-speaking medical schools, providing teachers a specific feedback upon which to improve their pedagogical practice, and authorities with valuable information for the assessment of their faculty.
Subject(s)
Humans , Faculty, Medical/standards , Language , Professional Competence/standards , Surveys and Questionnaires/standards , Students, Medical/psychology , Reproducibility of Results , SpainABSTRACT
Background: The study of predictors of academic performance is relevant for medical education. Most studies of academic performance use global ratings as outcome measure, and do not evaluate the influence of the assessment methods. Aim: To model by multivariate analysis, the academic performance of medical considering, besides academic and demographic variables, the methods used to assess students' learning and their preferred modes of information processing. Material and methods: Two hundred seventy two students admitted to the medical school of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile from 2000 to 2003. Six groups of variables were studied to model the students' performance in five basic science courses (Anatomy, Biology, Calculus, Chemistry and Physics) and two pre-clinical courses (Integrated Medical Clinic I and IT). The assessment methods examined were multiple choice question tests, Objective Structured Clinical Examination and tutor appraisal. Results: The results of the university admission tests (high school grades, mathematics and biology tests), the assessment methods used, the curricular year and previous application to medical school, were predictors of academic performance. The information processing modes influenced academic performance, but only in interaction with other variables. Perception (abstract or concrete) interacted with the assessment methods, and information use (active or reflexive), with sex. The correlation between the real and predicted grades was 0.7. Conclusions: In addition to the academic results obtained prior to university entrance, the methods of assessment used in the university and the information processing modes influence the academic performance of medical students in basic and preclinical courses.