evaluation of faculty members by students in birjand university of medicine, 2003-2004

background and purpose: evaluation of faculty members is a kind of educational evaluation to determine success of faculty members in reaching the educational goals. regarding the controversy about the validity of this kind of evaluation, this study was done to examine faculty members and students view point about content and implementation of evaluation of faculty members by students and feedback of the results in the second term of academic year 2003-4 in birjand university of medicine. methods: all faculty members and students participated in this descriptive study. their opinions were studied using two questionnaires for students and faculty members separately, whose content validity were confirmed after a survey from specialists and pilot study and reliability of results were studied through calculating cronbach’s alpha coefficient for internal consistency. data were analyzed through calculating frequencies and k2-test, =0.05. results: of all faculty members, 95% (30 from clinical and 30 from non-clinical departments) were aware of having been evaluated by students, 81.7% of them recognize educational development center of the university as the responsible body for evaluation. 91.7% of them received the feedback of the evaluation results. 45% of them agreed that announcement of evaluation results was helpful to improve teaching. 40% believed that questionnaires were responded without dutifulness and carefulness by students. conclusion: the aim of teaching evaluation is to improve teaching by faculty members. but it seems that many faculty members do not regard this evaluation tool so valid for measuring their teaching activities. the inappropriateness of most of the questionnaires, unfair judgment of student, and careless selection of the sample of students who answer the questionnaires are major issues for further development.