ABSTRACT

The aim of the faculty development survey was to develop and psychometrically assess the dimension of perceived needs assessment for faculty development for medicine. The 11-item scale was developed through expert panel discussion and a literature review on needs assessments to establish face and content validity. The results provide an example of how a psychometrically sound teaching needs assessment scale can be developed to be used in determining professors’ perceptions of the importance of various aspects of teaching. The important criteria of evaluating a test are descriptive statistics and number of candidates that passed the assessment. The internal consistency reliability, Cronbach’s a = 0.71, and the mean discrimination index are also helpful in evaluating test quality. Item discrimination has to do with the extent to which an item distinguishes or “discriminates” between high-test scorers and low-test scorers. Depending on which half got it correct, the item discriminates between them.