Faculty development program evaluation: a need to embrace complexity

Abstract

Faculty development is essential for renewing and assisting faculty to maintain teaching effectiveness and adapt to innovations in Health Professions educational institutions. The evaluation of faculty development programs appears to be a significant step in maintaining its relevance and efficiency. Yet, little has been published on the specific case of faculty development program evaluation in spite of the availability of general program evaluation models. These models do not measure or capture the information educators want to know about outcomes and impacts of faculty development. We posit that two reasons account for this. The first is the evolving nature of faculty development programs as they adapt to current reforms and innovations. The second involves the limitations imposed by program evaluation models that fail to take into account the multiple and unpredictable outcomes and impacts of faculty development. It is generally accepted that the outcomes and impacts are situated at various levels, ranging from the individual to the institutional and cultural levels. This calls for evaluation models that better capture the complexity of the impacts of faculty development, in particular the reciprocal relationships between program components and outcomes. We suggest conceptual avenues, based on Structuration Theory, that could lead to identifying the multilevel impacts of faculty development.