Cees P.M. Van Der Vleuten & Lambert Schuwirth.
Medical Education
March 2005, Vol. 39, Issue #3, pg. 309-317.
Review by: Linda Heun, Ph.D. <lheun@aacom.org>
The authors describe their use of a utility model that focuses on assessment as instructional design on the premise that the utility of an assessment method depends on making a compromise between various quality parameters. They posit that individual assessment methods should not be evaluated separately; but rather the view should be of the utility of the assessment program as a whole. The following specific points are developed:
- increasing evidence that reliability is not conditional on objectivity and standardization
- no assessment method is inherently unreliable and any method can be sufficiently reliable, provided sampling is appropriate across conditions of measurement
- validity is increasingly related to authenticity of assessment in the setting of day-to-day practice
- the tendency toward teaching competencies in an integrated manner must be matched with assessment of competent performance as an integrated whole
- the growing trend toward general competencies will necessitate an assessment orientation focused on qualitative, descriptive and narrative information
- a programmatic, instructional design approach to assessment surpasses the autonomy of the individual course developer/teacher
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