Background: This study explored the associations between the perceptions of students and the perceptions   of academic staff about the characteristics of clinical lecturers at the Department   of Internal Medicine at Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KUMS). It also assessed   what characteristics constitute a 'role model' from the point of view of students   and staff.
Methods: Staff and students were questioned about the characteristics of their colleagues and   lecturers, respectively. They were asked about 15 characteristics under four headings:   personality, teaching skill, group working and overall performance as a role model.
Associations between lecturers' characteristics were explored using Pearson correlation   and characteristics were allocated into groups by partition cluster method. In addition,   predictors of being a valuable lecturer were assessed using logistic regression analysis.
:Results: Based on staff responses, the strongest association observed was between honesty and   being respectful (r = 0.93, p < 0.0001). Based on student responses, the strongest   association observed was between being professional and honesty (r = 0.98, p < 0.0001).   None of the correlations between student and staff perceptions were significant for   any characteristic.
Two groups were recognized among the characteristics. group one contained those characteristics   which were related to the lecturer's activity; while the second group contained characteristics   that were related to the personality or teaching performance of the lecturer.
The predictors of lecturer as 'role model' (i.e., perceptions of students) consisted   mostly of characteristics from the first group, while the predictors of a 'role model'   by fellow academic staff consisted of characteristics that were in both groups.
Conclusion: These findings showed considerable differences between the perceptions of students   about their lecturers when compared with perceptions of staff about their colleagues.   Students were more concerned with the personality of their lecturers, while staff   also considered their ideas and behaviors. This suggests that a more comprehensive   assessment of a lecturer's performance could be obtained by taking into account feedback   from both students and colleagues