Internal evaluation of speech therapy department of Semnan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: The internal evaluation which is done by the members of the different departments is the best way to judge about quality of education and to identify its strong and weak areas. With regard to the important role of evaluation in the quality of education, the aim of this study is conducting an internal evaluation of the department of speech therapy in order to optimize the educational quality of the different parts of the department. Material and Methods: This descriptive-cross sectional study was done to evaluate some variables such as educational goals, optimal leading of the department instrumental and physical equipments, clinical educational environment, and student measures about educational style and teaching quality of practical and theoretical courses of scientific members of the department. To collect data, questionnaires and checklists were provided by the faculty members of the department of speech therapy. These instruments were given to the faculty members (to evaluate themselves) and the students (sophomore and senior students of speech therapy to evaluate the theoretical courses and the junior and senior students were asked to evaluate the clinical courses). After collecting each instrument, results were categorized according to Gourman Scoring Scale. Results: According to Gourman scores, means were obtained from internal evaluation of speech therapy as in follow: Professional – theoretical lessons were in more than satisfied ranking, clinical courses were in good ranking, educational and physical equipments (evaluated by scientific members and students) were in unsatisfied ranking and evaluation of head of group and scientific members were in satisfied ranking. Conclusion: Generally, results showed speech therapy group was in satisfied category. Obviously, to reach an ideal level, we should make some changes, for example, encouraging and strengthening weak areas and maintaining strong areas.