Document Detail


Empowerment evaluation: a collaborative approach to evaluating and transforming a medical school curriculum.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  20520033     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
Medical schools continually evolve their curricula to keep students abreast of advances in basic, translational, and clinical sciences. To provide feedback to educators, critical evaluation of the effectiveness of these curricular changes is necessary. This article describes a method of curriculum evaluation, called "empowerment evaluation," that is new to medical education. It mirrors the increasingly collaborative culture of medical education and offers tools to enhance the faculty's teaching experience and students' learning environments. Empowerment evaluation provides a method for gathering, analyzing, and sharing data about a program and its outcomes and encourages faculty, students, and support personnel to actively participate in system changes. It assumes that the more closely stakeholders are involved in reflecting on evaluation findings, the more likely they are to take ownership of the results and to guide curricular decision making and reform. The steps of empowerment evaluation include collecting evaluation data, designating a "critical friend" to communicate areas of potential improvement, establishing a culture of evidence, encouraging a cycle of reflection and action, cultivating a community of learners, and developing reflective educational practitioners. This article illustrates how stakeholders used the principles of empowerment evaluation to facilitate yearly cycles of improvement at the Stanford University School of Medicine, which implemented a major curriculum reform in 2003-2004. The use of empowerment evaluation concepts and tools fostered greater institutional self-reflection, led to an evidence-based model of decision making, and expanded opportunities for students, faculty, and support staff to work collaboratively to improve and refine the medical school's curriculum.
Authors:
David M Fetterman; Jennifer Deitz; Neil Gesundheit
Related Documents :
3171113 - Do consensus conferences work? a process evaluation of the nih consensus development pr...
18195413 - Evaluation standards for clinical coder training.
22251913 - Shoulder dystocia and postpartum hemorrhage simulations: student confidence in managing...
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges     Volume:  85     ISSN:  1938-808X     ISO Abbreviation:  Acad Med     Publication Date:  2010 May 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2010-06-03     Completed Date:  2010-07-15     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  8904605     Medline TA:  Acad Med     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  813-20     Citation Subset:  AIM; IM    
Affiliation:
Office of Medical Education, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA. davidfetterman@stanfordalumni.org
Export Citation:
APA/MLA Format     Download EndNote     Download BibTex
MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Curriculum*
Education, Medical, Undergraduate
Faculty, Medical
Feedback, Psychological
Humans
Models, Educational
Needs Assessment
Power (Psychology)
Program Evaluation
Schools, Medical*
United States

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine


Previous Document:  Coordinating Progressive Levels of Simulation Fidelity to Maximize Educational Benefit.
Next Document:  Did you know?