[Assessment of teaching at the faculties of medicine in Germany]

The aim of this study was to gather, against the background of a long-discussed deficit in academic teaching, data on the current activities of medical faculties with regard to teaching, and to analyse these findings. Another aim was to obtain suggestions for establishing a consensus on indicators that could be used to assess the quality of teaching.

In March 2000, a written inquiry was addressed to the deans of all 37 medical faculties in Germany. The questionnaire, arranged so that responses could be entered into a data-base, consisted of ten items in three parts. Part 1 concerned the evaluation of teaching, parts 2 and 3 dealt with the place of specific assessment of teaching in the process of choosing lecturers ("habilitation") and appointing senior professors. In addition to providing alternative answers (in some instances, allowing a choice of several alternatives) there was also space for written comments. The answers were analysed by descriptive statistics.

All questionnaires were returned in a usable form (response rate 100%). 36 faculties had, at the time of receiving the questionnaire, already instituted teaching assessments, of clinical teaching sessions more often than preclinical ones (97% vs 89%). The most widespread method of assessment consisted of obtaining students' opinion and of using the centralized written examinations of the institute for Medical and Pharmaceutical Examination Questions. In more than half of the faculties (57%) an above-average teaching performance by teachers was acknowledged in special ways (honours/prizes). In 31 faculties (84%) teaching experience counted as an absolute prerequisite for obtaining a lectureship, but as a rule without employing any defined standards. With regard to the selection of senior professors, 27 faculties (73%) explicitly took teaching competence into account. Defined criteria for assessing teaching ability were largely absent.

The assessment of teaching quality can be considered as well established at medical faculties in Germany. However, the methods and models used are highly heterogeneous. Furthermore, numerous activities exist in the various faculties to increase the importance attached to academic teaching. However, despite using diverse indicators of quality, the central problems for assessing teaching ability remain unsolved.