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. Meas urement principles, including validity, reliability, efficiency and feasibi lity, and methods to evaluate clinical teaching are reviewed. Context Evaluation is usually carried out from the perspective of the learn er. This article broadens the evaluation to include the perspectives of the teacher, the patient and the institutional administrators and payers in th e health care system and recommends evaluation strategies. Results Each perspective provides specific feedback on factors or attribute s of the clinical teacher's performance in the domains of medical expert, p rofessional, scholar, communicator, collaborator, patient advocate and mana ger. Teachers should be evaluated in all domains relevant to their teaching objectives; these include knowledge, clinical competence, teaching effecti veness and professional attributes. Conclusions and implications Using this model of evaluation, a connection c an be made between teaching and learning about all the expected roles of a physician. This can form the basis for systematic investigation into the re lationship between the quality of teaching and the desired outcomes, the im provement of student learning and the achievement of better health care pra ctice. It is suggested that the extent of effort and resources devoted to e valuation should be commensurate with the value assigned to the evaluation process and its outcomes.