Improving the effectiveness of tutors in problem-based learning

The improvement of instructional effectiveness has gained considerable interest during the last few years. Within this framework, the evaluation of teachers' performance has been stimulated in order to provide individual teachers with feedback about their performance. However, only providing faculty members with feedback will not increase their effectiveness. A faculty development programme is required in which is specified: (1) which formal requirements should be satisfied to fulfil the teaching role; (2) how faculty dialogue will be organized; (3) how the information will be used in promotion and tenure decisions; and (4) what kind of remedial teaching programmes will be offered to poorly scoring teachers. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how tutors within a problem-based curriculum can be evaluated and provided with adequate feedback about their performance in order to improve their behaviour. In addition, the focus will be on plans for action that could be undertaken with regard to the as...