A Weighted Evaluation Study of Clinical Teacher Performance at Five Hospitals in the UK

• Published in: Advances in medical education and practice 2021-01, Vol.12, p.957-963
• Main Authors: Sam, Amir H, Fung, Chee Yeen, Barth, Janina, Raupach, Tobias
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abdomen; Academic achievement; Algorithms; clinical teaching; College students; Core curriculum; Data analysis; Data collection; Data entry; Educational objectives; evaluation; Independent study; Learning; learning outcome; Medical education; Medical students; Nervous system; Original Research; Questionnaires; Ratings & rankings; Self evaluation; Student organizations; Teacher evaluations; Teachers; Teachers, Rating of; Teaching hospitals; undergraduate medical education
• ISSN: 1179-7258; 1179-7258
• DOI: 10.2147/AMEP.S322105

Evaluation of individual teachers in undergraduate medical education helps clinical teaching fellows identify their own strengths and weaknesses. In addition, evaluation data can be used to guide career decisions. In order for evaluation results to adequately reflect true teaching performance, a range of parameters should be considered when designing data collection tools. Clinical teaching fellows at five London teaching hospitals were evaluated by third-year students they had supervised during a ten-week clinical attachment. The questionnaire addressed (a) general teaching skills and (b) student learning outcome measured via comparative self-assessments. Teachers were ranked using different algorithms with various weights assigned to these two factors. A total of 133 students evaluated 14 teaching fellows. Overall, ratings on teaching skills were largely favourable, while the perceived increase in student performance was modest. Considerable variability across teachers was observed for both factors. Teacher rankings were strongly influenced by the weighting algorithm used. Depending on the algorithm, one teacher was assigned any rank between #2 and #10. Both parts of the questionnaire address different outcomes and thus highlight specific strengths and weaknesses of individual teachers. Programme directors need to carefully consider the weight assigned to individual components of teacher evaluations in order to ensure a fair appraisal of teacher performance.