Case study of a framing effect in course evaluations

Abstract

Background: When new elements are included in the medical curriculum and the total time frame remains unchanged, established disciplines have to shorten their courses. This might bring about frustration among the teachers and students concerned, which in turn might affect how other courses are perceived.

Findings: Two course evaluations, one before and one after a major change in the curriculum were compared. Comments were also analysed. We found that the students’ and teachers’ frustration influenced the students’ evaluations of a new course in the philosophy of medicine and accordingly brought about an unintended message effect referred to as a framing effect.

Conclusions: The results of this observational study indicate that a negative framing effect might influence course-evaluations. We suggest that this study might be used as a point of departure for further empirical studies about negative framing effects.