Today one recognizes the need of promoting some changes in medical education aimed at graduating professionals with a more humanistic profile. To achieve this goal it seems essential to invest in new evaluation procedures. The main objective of this study consists in describing the use of daily records as an instrument of educational evaluation. The present paper is a qualitative case study involving the reading of the daily records produced by the students enrolled in the course on Propaedeutic Medicine I, of the Faculty of Medicine - UFBA during the year of 2003. The research relied mainly on techniques of interpretation of contents of the collected data. The analysis of reports on practical activities allowed for a broad understanding of the students' experiences in their first contact with patients, how they judge their daily activities and the performance of the teachers as well as their view of their own learning progress. The daily record: 1) allows for monitoring the practical classroom activities and the performance in terms of teaching methodology; 2) provides elements for the affective evaluation of the students; 3) serves as a resource for the reformulation of pedagogical practices based on the feedback from the students; 4) works as an instrument for self-evaluation for the students.
Educational Measurement; Curriculum; Empiricism; Education,Medical
