Reliability and Validity of Residents’’ Evaluation of the Mashhad University of Medical Sciences Faculty Members, in Different Clinical and Para-Clinical Groups

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant professor of Internal Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

2 -BSc in Education, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

3 Assistant professor of Radiology, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
 
Evaluation in education is common, the most complex type of evaluation is the evaluation of professors
Materials and Methods
Evaluation of 311 Mashhad University of Medical Sciences faculty members, in different clinical and para-clinical groups in the educational year 1390 was performed   by 1 to 47 residents in 13 items. Reliability of residents’ evaluation was determined by Cronbach's alpha measurement. Factor analysis   was used to determine the validity of the residents’ evaluation.
Results
Obtained   Cronbach's alpha   of more than 0.95 demonstrated good reliability of residents’ evaluation of professors. Validity evaluation of the questionnaire  showed that only 68% of  the total variation  was explained by it, also extraction of more than one component   for  improvement in the interpretation of the results was not possible. None of the 13 items in the questionnaire had eigen-value of more than 1. These results showed that the assessment was without validity. Students may be more affected by the characteristics of the teacher like: reputation, religion, appearance or adornment, political and cultural information, class attendance, administrative position, manner and conduction; than the content and methods of his/her teaching.
Conclusion
The questionnaire was completed by respondent bias; had reliability but lacked validity, students may have had evaluated other characteristics of the professors, rather than the 13 questions asked in the questionnaire.

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