Philosophy of Assessment Process Mark E Lutman Institute

Philosophy of Assessment Process Mark E Lutman Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, University of Southampton

Principle of objective assessment • Aim mainly to assess what the trainee can DO, under a range of circumstances • Not to assess what the trainee is like • Criteria expressed mainly in terms of objective performance requirements • May be aspects of professional attitude that are assessed • Note that this differs from medical assessments, which are expressed more in terms of rating the person, as opposed to what they have demonstrated they can do 2

Principle of shared continuous assessment • Trainee’s progress is assessed continuously, mainly by local clinicians • Snapshots of performance by external assessors • Decision on competence based on summation of continuous assessments and snapshots (IRCP) • Decision is shared by university staff and local supervisors 3

Formative and summative assessment • Formative assessment aims to give feedback to trainee – Indicates what aspects of performance are good or need improvement – Helps trainee to improve • Summative assessment rates performance in some way – Used towards determination of competence • Most assessments have both formative and summative elements (IRCP) 4

Principle of threshold assessment • Threshold assessment means ensuring that the trainee has met the minimum standard and is therefore competent • Many trainees are expected to exceed the threshold level by a substantial margin • Training should have scope to exceed the threshold standard and challenge the most able students 5

Principle of reliability in assessment • Measured trainee performance will vary according to various factors, such as – Variation from day to day – Improvement over time – Complexity of case material – Variation among assessors • Assessments must be sufficiently numerous and varied to capture the inevitable variations 6

Principle of theory into practice • Trainees need to connect what they have learnt academically to clinical practice • Trainers should challenge trainees frequently to make this connection • Fits in with Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning, where theory influences experience, which in turn informs understanding of theory, and so on … 7

Principle of evidence-based practice • Trainees need to understand why things are done the way they are, as well as what to do • They are expected to challenge custom and practice • They need to be encouraged to challenge, based on evidence (e. g. guidelines, standards, research publications) • Useful task is for trainees to find out why a procedures is carried out the way it is, and to seek out potential improvements (based on evidence) 8

Comments & Questions 9