Attitude of students of Qazvin Medical University towards priorities in teachers assessment

Background: Using students’ views for teacher assessment is a common method. However, research results indicate that students’ ideas about their teachers is influenced by some factors which have no close relationship to the evaluation subject and is merely related to the instructors specification. Objective: To determine the attitude of students of different fields in Qazvin medical university toward priorities in teachers assessment. Methods: Through a descriptive study, a questionnaire consisting of 7 parts and 43 questions was used to gather data. Findings: Results indicated that the majority of students (85.2%) selected “mastery of contents as the most important priority in teachers assessment. Most of them (78.5%) selected “self-confidence” for personal characteristics, 69.8% selected “establishing an intimate relationship with students for communication skills, 36.9% selected ”on time starting and finishing the class” in respect to educational principles and 34.2% selected “performing an exact and comprehensive exam at the end of the term” for evaluation skills. Also 33.3% of the samples believed that there is a high conformity between the present evaluations and reality and 10.3% believed there is no conformity between them. Conclusion: Although students distinguish some very important factors for teachers assessment, the necessary factors for a good teacher based on the scientific criteria aren selected as the most important by the students and this may decrease the validity and reliability of students ratings.