10 research outputs found
A model of the pre-assessment learning effects of summative assessment in medical education
It has become axiomatic that assessment impacts powerfully on student learning. However, surprisingly little research has been published emanating from authentic higher education settings about the nature and mechanism of the pre-assessment learning effects of summative assessment. Less still emanates from health sciences education settings. This study explored the pre-assessment learning effects of summative assessment in theoretical modules by exploring the variables at play in a multifaceted assessment system and the relationships between them. Using a grounded theory strategy, in-depth interviews were conducted with individual medical students and analyzed qualitatively. Respondents’ learning was influenced by task demands and system design. Assessment impacted on respondents’ cognitive processing activities and metacognitive regulation activities. Individually, our findings confirm findings from other studies in disparate non-medical settings and identify some new factors at play in this setting. Taken together, findings from this study provide, for the first time, some insight into how a whole assessment system influences student learning over time in a medical education setting. The findings from this authentic and complex setting paint a nuanced picture of how intricate and multifaceted interactions between various factors in an assessment system interact to influence student learning. A model linking the sources, mechanism and consequences of the pre-assessment learning effects of summative assessment is proposed that could help enhance the use of summative assessment as a tool to augment learning
Modelling the pre-assessment learning effects of assessment : evidence in the validity chain
Publication of this article was funded by the Stellenbosch University Open Access Fund.The original publication is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/%28ISSN%291365-2923/OBJECTIVES We previously developed a
model of the pre-assessment learning effects of
consequential assessment and started to
validate it. The model comprises assessment
factors, mechanism factors and learning effects.
The purpose of this study was to continue the
validation process. For stringency, we focused
on a subset of assessment factor–learning effect
associations that featured least commonly in a
baseline qualitative study. Our aims were to
determine whether these uncommon associations
were operational in a broader but similar
population to that in which the model was
initially derived.
METHODS A cross-sectional survey of 361
senior medical students at one medical school
was undertaken using a purpose-made
questionnaire based on a grounded theory and
comprising pairs of written situational tests. In
each pair, the manifestation of an assessment
factor was varied. The frequencies at which
learning effects were selected were compared
for each item pair, using an adjusted alpha to
assign significance. The frequencies at which
mechanism factors were selected were calculated.
RESULTS There were significant differences in
the learning effect selected between the two
scenarios of an item pair for 13 of this subset of
21 uncommon associations, even when a
p-value of < 0.00625 was considered to indicate
significance. Three mechanism factors were
operational in most scenarios: agency; response
efficacy, and response value.
CONCLUSIONS For a subset of uncommon
associations in the model, the role of most
assessment factor–learning effect associations
and the mechanism factors involved were supported
in a broader but similar population to
that in which the model was derived. Although
model validation is an ongoing process, these
results move the model one step closer to the
stage of usefully informing interventions. Results
illustrate how factors not typically included in
studies of the learning effects of assessment
could confound the results of interventions
aimed at using assessment to influence learning.Stellenbosch UniversityPublishers' Versio
The supervisor’s toolkit: A framework for doctoral supervision in health professions education: AMEE Guide No. 104
The mechanism of impact of summative assessment on medical students’ learning
It has become axiomatic that assessment impacts powerfully on student learning, but there is a surprising dearth of research on how. This study explored the mechanism of impact of summative assessment on the process of learning of theory in higher education. Individual, in-depth interviews were conducted with medical students and analyzed qualitatively. The impact of assessment on learning was mediated through various determinants of action. Respondents’ learning behaviour was influenced by: appraising the impact of assessment; appraising their learning response; their perceptions of agency; and contextual factors. This study adds to scant extant evidence and proposes a mechanism to explain this impact. It should help enhance the use of assessment as a tool to augment learning
A model of the pre-assessment learning effects of summative assessment in medical education
Patterns of exotic plant invasions in fragmented urban and rural grasslands acrss continents
http://www.springerlink.com/content/406n61046v164t75/fulltext.htm
Deformation and buckling of axially compressed cylindrical shells with local loads in numerical simulation and experiments
Abstract
Background
There is a dire need to expand the capacity of institutions in Africa to educate health care professionals. Family physicians, as skilled all-rounders at district level, are potentially well placed to contribute to an extended training platform in this context. To play this role, they need to both have an understanding of their specialist role that incorporates teaching and be equipped for their role as trainers of current and future health workers and specialists. A teaching and learning capacity-building module was introduced into a new master’s programme in family medicine at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. We report on the influence of this module on graduates after the first six years.
Methods
A qualitative study was undertaken, interviewing thirteen graduates of the programme. Thematic analysis of data was done by a team comprising tutors and graduates of the programme and an independent researcher. Ethical clearance was obtained.
Results
The module influenced knowledge, skills and attitudes of respondents. Perceptions and evidence of changes in behaviour, changes in practice beyond the individual respondent and benefits to students and patients were apparent. Factors underlying these changes included the role of context and the role of personal factors. Contextual factors included clinical workload and opportunity pressure i.e., the pressure and responsibility to undertake teaching. Personal factors comprised self-confidence, modified attitudes and perceptions towards the roles of a family physician and towards learning and teaching, in addition to the acquisition of knowledge and skills in teaching and learning. The interaction between opportunity pressure and self-confidence influenced the application of what was learned about teaching.
Conclusions
A module on teaching and learning influenced graduates’ perceptions of, and self-reported behaviour relating to, teaching as practicing family physicians. This has important implications for educating family physicians in and for Africa and indirectly on expanding capacity to educate health care professionals in Africa