Congruence between student and instructor perceptions of clinical teaching in paediatrics

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the similarities and differences in what students and instructors perceive to be the importance, and instructor use of, representative effective clinical teaching skills noted in the literature. Teaching staff members (n = 74) and students (n = 96) in three successive quarters in a required clerkship in paediatrics completed parallel forms of a clinical teaching survey. Providing feedback and positive reinforcement, showing personal interest in students, communicating knowledge and learning objectives effectively, motivating students, exhibiting knowledge of current practice and physical diagnosis, and spending time reviewing histories and demonstrating and supervising physical examinations were all thought to be important by both students and teaching staff members. Both students and instructors, however, perceived history/physical examination skills to be somewhat less important than the other clinical teaching skills, although instructors believed this skill to be significantly more important than did students. In general there was a great deal of consistency and reliability among student and instructor perceptions of the importance of these representative effective clinical teaching skills. In contrast, teaching staff members consistently believed they used each skill significantly more than students judged they did. Not surprisingly, the more important that teaching staff members believed each skill to be, the more they reported using that skill in their own teaching. These findings suggest that it is important for clinical instructors to be vigilant in assessing the effectiveness of their teaching methods.

Comprehensive Assessment of Teaching Performance in Medical Education

“…According to teachers these were frequently used, while students responded that their teachers did not use them so frequently. Hence, teachers are a group prone to give a selfassessment score higher than that given to them by students (Wolf & Turner, 1989), findings similar to this study. The students' academic achievement strategy is more objective at assessing teaching performance, as it is quantitative (Werther & Keith, 2002), and mathematical models were used to adjust the academic achievement average, considering the average at entrance which involves the degree of knowledge acquired by students; although this does not rule out the great usefulness of students' opinion and, to a lesser degree, teachers' self-assessment.…”

Students' evaluation of surgical seminars in a teaching hospital

“…This study is based on the students’ evaluation of the seminars. Evaluation by students is reliable, 14–16 and the provision of structured and constructive feedback when combined with educational training can improve the quality of teaching 17 . The students who answered the questionnaire were different in each attachment and had not been exposed to these seminars before.…”

Role modelling: how does it influence teaching in Family Medicine?

“…Learner perceptions are frequently‐used measures in health care educational research 7 , 17 , 18 and may be more valid in assessing the use of teaching skills than those of the teachers 19 . Two other sources of primary criteria for defining effective teaching are expert opinion and researcher observation 20 .…”