How do you know your teaching has been effective? A process of evaluation needs to be established to ensure that students have achieved their learning objectives and patient/client services are optimal. Evaluation is part of an ongoing cycle of development whereby opportunities for improvement are identified (process, organisational, personal), action taken and outcomes re-evaluated. Typical means of evaluation may be:
- formal academic results of students,
- feedback from learners,
- And reflection on, and analysis of processes and practices.
Self-directed Informal Evaluation
You may wish to address local or personal issues of relevance by creating your own survey or questionnaire. Morrison (2003, as cited in Health and Education Institute, 2012) has suggested questions you might consider when assessing the processes that impact on learning.
Physical environment:
- Did the workplace environment facilitate or hinder your learning?
- What are the pros and cons of learning in this environment?
- Do you have any suggestions for improvement?
Education methods and facilitator performance:
- Can you share your thoughts about the way I showed you how to…?
- Was I clear in my instruction/explanation/demonstration?
- Did I provide you with adequate time to reflect?
- Did I provide you with adequate opportunity to practice?
- Was the discussion we had about… useful? In what way?
Administrative arrangements:
- Is the time/session length/frequency suitable?
- Would you like anything to change?
Formal Evaluation of Clinical Supervision
The Maastricht Clinical Teaching Questionnaire (CTQ) is an easy to use questionnaire enabling student evaluation and self-evaluation of supervision. The questions are derived from teaching methods suggested by the cognitive apprenticeship model (Collins, 1989, as cited in Stalmeijer et al, 2008) including items addressing modelling, coaching, scaffolding, articulation, reflection, exploration and general learning climate. We would encourage supervisors to trial the use of this validated instrument to gather feedback and inform future development of the quality of clinical supervision.
