What's the use of faculty development? Program evaluation using retrospective self-assessments and independent performance ratings

Background: The assessment of the effectiveness of faculty development prog rams is increasingly important in medical schools and academic medical cent ers but is difficult to accomplish. Purpose: We investigated the usefulness of retrospective self-assessments b y program participants in combination with independent ratings of teaching performance by their trainees. Methods: We used a single sample, prepost intervention design using multipl e measures. Our assessment instruments were based on our institution's acce pted teaching competencies. We measured participants' self-assessments of t heir teaching competencies before the program and their retrospective self- assessed improvements in these competencies after the program. We also used independent ratings of the participants' teaching competencies before and after their involvement in the program, as rated by their own trainees (fel lows, residents, and medical students). Selected teaching competencies comp rised the intended learning outcomes of the faculty development program. Results: Participants 'preprogram self-assessments showed that the program was appropriately matched to several topics identified as needy, but also i ncluded topics that participants did not identify as needs. The retrospecti ve self-assessments showed improvements in teaching skills that previously were identified as needs, as well as those in which participants originally felt quite competent. The independent ratings by trainees showed overall p ositive improvements (some significantly). The retrospective self-assessed improvements correlated positively with the independent ratings by their tr ainees (p < .01). Conclusions: This evaluation strategy showed that the faculty development p rogram improved the teaching competencies of the participants. Both the pro gram participants' retrospective self-assessments and the independent ratin gs by their trainees showed postprogram improvements and were positively in tercorrelated. The use of these multiple measures is a viable approach to e valuate the impact of a faculty development program. Potentially either app roach could be used, but in combination, they provide a feasible, valid, an d reliable evaluation. Copyright (C) 2001 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, I nc.