Validating Processes for Using Curriculum Objectives as Standards in Curriculum Evaluation.

N

12

College Faculty; Curriculum; Data Collection; Educational Objectives; Generalizability Theory; Higher Education; Medical Education; Medical Students; Validity

This paper describes the processes for collecting information about the objectives of a medical school curriculum and the validation studies of those processes. Major revisions were implemented in the curriculum of the first 2 years at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in 1998. In the 2000-2001 academic year, student and faculty groups were asked to reflect on the curriculum objectives using processes tailored to each group's perspective. First and second year medical students (42 to 102 raters per course) documented the degree of emphasis on each objective they experienced in each course. Graduating students (n=170) recorded the emphasis on each objective experienced in the third and fourth years. Curriculum Committee members (n=15) recorded the degree of emphasis they thought should be given to each objective across the 4 years. The framework of generalizability theory allowed the evaluation of validity of these approaches. The design of the data collection processes and the results of generalizability analyses provide good evidence of the validity of the mean emphasis ratings generated by the processes described in this paper. An appendix contains an example of the survey questions and responses. (SLD)

2002

ED464928