title: Evaluating clinical teachers with the Maastricht clinical teaching questionnaire: how much 'teacher' is in student ratings?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Students are a popular source of data to evaluate the performance of clinical teachers. Instruments to obtain student evaluations must have proven validity. One aspect of validity that often remains underexposed is the possibility of effects of between-student differences and teacher and student characteristics not directly related to teaching performance.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The authors examined the occurrence of such effects, using multilevel analysis to analyse data from the Maastricht clinical teaching questionnaire (MCTQ), a validated evaluation instrument, in a veterinary curriculum.
  
  
  METHODS
  The 15-item MCTQ covers five domains. The authors used multilevel analysis to divide the variance in the domain scores in components related to, respectively, teachers and students. They estimated subsequent models to explore how the MCTQ scores are dependent on teacher and student characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Significant amounts of variance in student ratings were due to between-teacher differences, particularly for learning climate, modelling and coaching. The effects of teacher and student characteristics were mostly non-significant or small.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Large portions of variance in MCTQ scores were due to differences between teachers, while the contribution of student and teacher characteristics was negligible. The results support the validity of student ratings obtained with the MCTQ for evaluating teacher performance.
authors.affiliation: Quality Improvement of Veterinary Education, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. tobias.boerboom@knmvd.nl
authors.forename: Tobias B B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Boerboom
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mainhard
authors.forename: Diana H J M
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Dolmans
authors.forename: Albert J J A
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Scherpbier
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van Beukelen
authors.forename: A D C
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Jaarsma
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D004520:Education, Veterinary / Q000592:standards*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005178:Faculty / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D009426:Netherlands; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000523:psychology*