The Trend of Alterations in the Quality of Educational Performance in Faculty Members of Kerman University of Medical Sciences

Background: Faculty members are one of the major parts of universities whose performance has a key role in outcomes of educational systems. With continuous evaluation of faculty members, part of which done by students, real performance of faculty members with all its shortcomings and positive points would be determined and consequently it helps improving the quality of educational activities. Objective: To determine the process of alterations in the quality of educational performance in faculty members of Kerman University of Medical Sciences Method: This correlation study was done on all faculty members of Kerman University of Medical Sciences during 2001-2006 who had been evaluated 8 times through getting students’ opinion. Data related to the quality of educational performance were gathered through the obtained scores in students’ evaluation and data related to research activities were gathered through research activity scores assigned for annual promotion of faculty members. Results: According to the obtained results, during the study period, the average annual increase in educational performance was 0.06 that is statistically significant (p=0.0001), but alteration in research activities during the studied period was not significant. There was no significant relation between educational performance and research activity and also demographic features of subjects such as academic rank, educational degree and job experience, while educational degree and academic rank showed significant relations with research activity score (p= 0.001, p= 0.003 respectively). Conclusion: The present study shows an improvement in educational performance during the recent years that is probably due to continuous evaluations. Lack of significant relation between the quality of educational performance and research activity requires planning programs for bridging these two domains. Keywords: Evaluation, Faculty members, Educational quality, Higher education, Research