Philosophy of Assessment Process

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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 …

8. 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)

9. Comments & Questions