Training Staff's Multidimensional Perceptions of a Class of Medex (Physician's Extension) Trainees: A Method of Grading

Abstract

A recently proposed multidimensional similarity judgment analysis methodology (the Stone-Coles method) was used to analyze the dimensionality of a class of Medex (physician's extension) trainees as perceived by the staff of the involved Medex training project. The extracted dimensions associated with the “early-in-program” and “about-to-be-graduated” perceptions accounted for 76 and 79%, respectively, of the judgmental variances; all dimensions appeared to be readily interpretable. The major dimension for the last obtained judgments clearly seemed to be some kind of “quality of trainee” characterization. This particular evaluation judgment dimension was accepted by the involved training staff, the judges, as a satisfactory “grading” measure for the trainees. A conclusion reached is that multidimensional scaling can be used, with advantage, in the academic grading of students when the basis for such grading is limited to evaluative opinion of others (e.g., teachers).