Introduction

The student assessment process in medical schools involves the teacher’s direct observation of student performance. This evaluation causes distress and discomfort to some teachers in their attempt to be fair and impartial during feedback. This study aims to understand the feelings, concepts, and teachers’ beliefs regarding the process of subjective assessment of students and to identify the factors that both hinder and facilitate this evaluation.

Method

Three focus groups were formed with teachers from the Federal University of Minas Gerais School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, stratified by years of teaching and classified by gender, title, and functional category. The meetings had a moderator helped by the researcher, lasted between 90 and 120 minutes and finished when themes were exhausted. All discussions were transcribed, yielding 118 pages that were subjected to content analysis.

Results

Discourse was categorized into five major themes: the difficulty of assessing clinical skills and attitudes, the teacher/student relationship, feelings experienced by teachers during assessment, facilitating factors and need for change.

Conclusions

Teachers lack well-defined objectives and specific assessment tools. They recognize the need for better pedagogical knowledge and consider the act of evaluating an isolated task with very little support from the institution.