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Faculty Evaluations by Learners: useful or just checking a box?
Background: Competency based medical
education relies on skilled educators to effectively provide clinical
instruction. How skilled medical
educators develop and improve their educational skillset is not well
understood. The most frequently employed
strategy is learner evaluation. Whether
learner evaluations effectively improve faculty teaching performance is not
known. The goal of this narrative review
was to evaluate the current literature on the use of learner evaluations and
address how they improve faculty teaching.
Using self-determination theory (SDT) as a guide, studies were evaluated
on how feedback drives behavior change through external and internal
motivations.
Data Sources and Methods of Study Selection:
A systematic review was conducted to assess the use of learner
evaluations in faculty development.
Relevant publications were identified by searching the following
databases: ERIC and MEDLINE (via PubMed).
Articles were included if they related trainee feedback directly to
faculty performance. Experimental and
observational studies, case studies and review articles were included if they
were written in English and were available online in full text.
Tabulation, Integration and Results: The reviewer independently screened titles
and abstracts of 1761 articles. 313 full
text articles were evaluated, and 23 studies were included. Only a small subset of studies described
faculty response to learner feedback, and only two addressed faculty motivation
to change.
Conclusion: Despite the importance
placed on faculty evaluations there is a paucity of data on whether faculty
improve with feedback or in how faculty respond to feedback. Utilizing a conceptual framework, such as
SDT, may help guide the development of effective feedback systems by leveraging
what we understand about motivational forces to change.
Topics:
ASL, 2023,
