Noncognitive Evaluation of Medical Training

Abstract

Problems in noncognitive evaluation of medical training are a function of difficulties in identifying what constitutes a good physician and in grasping the concept's major features as they operate in medical education. This article suggests a paracog nitive approach in which medical educa tion is conceptualized as a confluence of training and specific maturational trends. A Paracognitive Evaluation Form was constructed to assess performance ofmedi cal students in seminars and chnical teaching situations. Analyses mdicated that the device was used reliably and that it is allowed for evaluative discriminations of poor and excellent-or-better students. A hierarchical cluster analysis suggested that specific maturational trends or developmental lines were being tapped by the device. Further uses of paracognitive evaluatron are discussed.