Significance of Instructors' Assessments in Medical Ethics Education / 医学教育

ABSTRACT

Our medical ethics course emphasizes problem-based-learning (PBL) via group discussion of clinical cases. The significanceof instructors' assessments of PBL in ethics education was studied with different assessment tools during thelast 2 years. In the first year, students' behavior and level of functioning in group discussion were assessed on a group basiswith an 8-item instrument. In the second year, students' level of functioning and flexibility in response to differentopinions in group discussion were assessed on an individual basis with a 2-item instrument. Instsments ofstudent's performance in group discussion were positively but weakly correlated with scores of their reports derivedfrom group discussions. Instructors could consistently assess student performance in PBL in terms of behavior and levelof functioning in group discussions. Furthermore, instructors rated flexibility in response to other opinions as an importantfactor in group dynamics, including interaction between students and instructors. These results suggest that instructors'assessments can be used to help evaluate students in a medical ethics course. Instructors' assessments of studentflexibility during PBL can be particularly useful in this regard.