Development of the AMEET questionnaire, an instrument measuring faculty members' perceptions of their educational environment

ABSTRACT

The educational environment experienced by teachers involves all conditions affecting teaching and learning activities. Faculty perceptions of their educational environment are important not only for themselves but also for students. As no instrument exists to assess viewpoints of faculty, we aimed to develop and validate the Assessment of Medical Education Environment by Teachers [AMEET] questionnaire. A modified Delphi technique was used to generate items for the inventory. A small group of experts [a medical education expert and four teaching faculty] assisted in defining a preliminary list of items through literature review and group discussions. Sixteen international consenting panel members graded [0 - not necessary, 1- desirable, 2- important, 3- absolutely essential] and modified the initial statements or suggested new statements [Round 1], In Round 2, the panel graded the new statements and reconsidered their previous responses. Subsequently, statements with median scores < /= 1 were excluded. Responses for new statements were reconsidered and final inclusion of each statement was indicated through agreement in Round 3. A pilot test enabled evaluation of validity and reliability of the instrument. Fifty statements were generated initially for the preliminary inventory. The panel members modified and graded the fifty statements and suggested five new statements via Round 1. The new statements were graded; responses to previous fifty statements were reconsidered and three statements with median scores < 1 were removed following Round 2. Agreement was finally sought for inclusion of 52 statements and two statements were subsequently deleted as panel agreement was < 75% for each of them. The 50-item questionnaire was refined to its final version with six domains and piloted with 62 faculties. A Cronbach's Alpha of 0.94 was obtained. The AMEET questionnaire is a valid, highly reliable and practically useful instrument to assess faculty members' perceptions of educational environment