Teacher characteristics affecting clinical education in audiology

Abstract

Background and Aim: Clinical education is a major component of the Audiology curriculum. Clinical teachers and instructors play an impor­tant role in achieving clinical education goals. This research was conducted to survey the view point of Audiology students, teachers, and gra­duates about clinical teachers’ characteristics affecting clinical education.
 Methods: Through purposeful sampling met­hod, 14 senior undergraduate students, 4 BSc. Graduates, and 7 teachers participated in this qualitative study. The relevant data were coll­ected via focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews. The obtained data were analyzed by conventional content analysis.
 Results: After data analysis and classification of codes, two main themes and some sub-themes were emerged. Themes included pro­fessional characteristics of clinical experience, educational ability and rigor as well as perso­nality characteristics of behavior, motivation and compassion, discipline and timeliness. They were recognized as influential attributes of a clinical teacher by the study participants.
 Conclusion: It seems that clinical experience, educational ability, rigor, behavior, motivation, timeliness and discipline play an important role in increasing the quality of clinical education. Therefore, the choice of qualified clinical tea­cher is important in conducting the best clinical education course in the field of Audiology.