A review of the evaluation of clinical teaching: New perspectives and challenges

Purpose: This article discusses the importance of the process of evaluation of clinical teaching for the individual teacher and for the programme. Measurement principles, including validity, reliability, efficiency and feasibility, and methods to evaluate clinical teaching are reviewed. Context: Evaluation is usually carried out from the perspective of the learner. This article broadens the evaluation to include the perspectives of the teacher, the patient and the institutional administrators and payers in the health care system and recommends evaluation strategies. Results: Each perspective provides specific feedback on factors or attributes of the clinical teacher's performance in the domains of medical expert, professional, scholar, communicator, collaborator, patient advocate and manager. Teachers should be evaluated in all domains relevant to their teaching objectives; these include knowledge, clinical competence, teaching effectiveness and professional attributes. Conclusions and implications: Using this model of evaluation, a connection can be made between teaching and learning about all the expected roles of a physician. This can form the basis for systematic investigation into the relationship between the quality of teaching and the desired outcomes, the improvement of student learning and the achievement of better health care practice. It is suggested that the extent of effort and resources devoted to evaluation should be commensurate with the value assigned to the evaluation process and its outcomes.