Medical Sciences learning evaluation ethical issues

Abstract

Introduction: Evaluation’s practices have an important ethical repercussion in several situations that may occur in the different disciplinary fields of Medical Sciences, and where the behavior of teachers plays a key role. Ethics and evaluation provide tools to improve teaching strategies and methodologies in all teaching areas with the aim of improving continuously the development of teaching-learning process. Objective: To analyze ethical issues that may arise in Medical Science learning evaluations. Material and methods: A bibliographic review was carried out; 57 articles relative to the learning evaluation in the Medical Sciences were consulted, of which 23 were used as bibliographical references. Development: The exercise of evaluation involves, in its dimension as an ethical action, implicate proper values of humanistic education. Among the ethical problems that may arise are power and objectivity. Some suggestions are made to transform evaluation practices and to avoid ethical failures that may arise in the development of the evaluation process. Conclusions: The most common ethical implications that may arise in learning evaluation are found in any evaluation process but must be faced with a critical attitude to achieve a development of the educational process. Ethical evaluation shall be more use as a tool to lead the continuous quality improvement of the teaching-learning process and teacher’s professional development. Keywords: Ethics, ethical behavior, learning evaluation, evaluation’s ethics, ethics in the educational process.