Development of teaching quality evaluation questionnaire for preclinical courses: an exploratory factor analysis

Abstract

Background Course quality assessment contributes to evaluate teaching effectiveness and to improve student learning. Several course quality assessment questionnaires have been carried out associated with teaching quality evaluation of medical education. However, little is known about views of medical students regarding the quality of preclinical courses. To fill this gap, we aimed to develop a novel multi-dimension instrument for assessing teaching quality with the perception of medical students in preclinical courses.Methods The original Teaching Quality Evaluation Questionnaire (TQEQ) containing seven dimensions: course contents, teaching abilities, teaching methods, teaching attitudes, learning outcomes, teacher characteristics, student subjection, consisting of 47 items was formed according to literature reviews and group design. We sent the original questionnaires with items in a random order to medical students of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine. After collecting the valid questionnaires, the exploratory factor analysis was conducted to assess construct validity and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used for evaluating internal consistency reliability of the questionnaires.Results In total, 590/646 (91.3%) of participants completed the questionnaire regarding preclinical course evaluation. The exploratory factor analysis yielded seven common factors, learning outcomes, teaching attitudes, student subjection, teaching abilities, teaching methods, teacher characteristics, teaching interactions, consisting of 39 items explained 58.449% of total variance and the factor loading value was above 0.4. In addition, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.669 to 0.914.Conclusion This study provides a new, validated and useful instrument for measuring teaching effectiveness of preclinical courses based on the views of medical students. It is feasible for use in medical schools.