The Role of Moral Intelligence in Shaping Medical Students’ Attitudes Toward Faculty Evaluation: A Correlational Study
Abstract
Students’ attitudes toward faculty evaluation and the factors influencing their judgments play a crucial role in the validity of such evaluations. This study examined the relationship between students’ moral intelligence and their attitudes toward faculty evaluation using a descriptive-correlational design at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in the 2023-2024 academic year. A total of 258 medical students were selected through proportional and convenience sampling across the basic sciences, preclinical, clerkship, and internship stages of medical education. Data were collected using standardized moral intelligence and researcher-developed questionnaires assessing students’ attitudes toward faculty evaluation. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 16. The percentage of students’ moral intelligence was calculated as 75.53%. The highest mean and standard deviation were observed for the subscale of commitment to promises (15.89 ± 2.12), while the lowest were observed for the subscale of the ability to forgive others’ mistakes (13.90 ± 2.89). Students’ attitudes across four subscales, including overall attitude toward faculty evaluation, application of faculty evaluation results, faculty evaluation process, and judgment, yielded means and standard deviations of 10.18 ± 2.8 (out of 15), 13.7 ± 5.12 (out of 20), 17.9 ± 4.65 (out of 30), and 69.6 ± 8 (out of 110), respectively. The two subscales of overall attitude and judgment showed a direct and statistically significant correlation with moral intelligence scores. Students who possessed higher levels of moral characteristics such as adherence to principles, honesty, commitment to promises, responsibility, and the ability to forgive provided fairer and more realistic evaluations of faculty members. These results underscore the importance of cultivating moral intelligence among medical students as a factor in enhancing the quality of the faculty evaluation system, so that students regard evaluation not as a means of retaliation, but rather as an opportunity to improve the quality of education.