Responses

Abstract

It is my pleasure to respond to the Mogan and Knox article on "Students' Perceptions of Clinical Teaching." I commend them for their study of an area (student evaluation of clinical teaching) which has been the subject of much talk in nursing education but of very little research as their literature review clearly indicates. I found the article interesting and stimulating, and some of the questions and ideas it led me to consider I will discuss briefly here. Methods First, some questions about methodology. What were the procedures used for administration of the forms to the students in the sample? The authors, using a retrospective approach, had no research control over administration variables. I am aware through my own and others' experience with teacher evaluation that forms are often administered hurriedly, with short time periods allotted for responding, at the end of some other educational activity considered by the teacher as more important. Yet time allotted must surely affect the specificity of students' comments secured, a variable which apparently was of interest to the authors.