Assessing the complexity of professional achievement (original) (raw)

Assessment for the development of professional competence

2009

Traditional forms of assessment such, as essays and end of term examinations, are still widely used in higher education in Ireland as the sole assessment methods. These forms of assessment, while the may be valid and reliable methods for collecting evidence of ...

Professional pathways: a case for measurements in more than one dimension

Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 1995

Recent developments in UK professional education are leading to competence-based National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications (N/SVQs) being offered alongside academic awards within the Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CAT) system. Although dual accreditation of this type may be a welcome development, the N/SVQ and CAT systems have different philosophies and cannot easily be linked in structural relationships. The context-specific notion of competence represented by N/SVQs is only one dimension of effective professional practice, as in order to operate intelligently in many of the situations with which they are faced, practitioners increasingly need transcendant abilities of reflection, enquiry and creative synthesis. A solution lies in a coherent approach to professional development and accreditation which is based in a coherent epistemology and allows these overarching abilities to be recognised through the CAT system independently of N/SVQ requirements, while enabling students to work towards awards through both systems simultaneously without duplication of effort.

Making to measure? Reconsidering assessment in professional continuing education

Drawing on studies of teachers, accountants and pharmacists conducted in Canada, this article examines models for assessing professional learning that currently enjoy widespread use in continuing education. These models include professional growth plans, self-administered tests, and learning logs, and they are often used for regulatory as well as developmental purposes by professional associations. The essay argues what others have critiqued about such self-assessment models: that their assumptions about learning are problematic and limiting in a number of respects, privileging human consciousness and intention, and literally ‘making’ a particular professional subject that is atomised and conservative. The discussion suggests alternative perspectives that are receiving increasing attention in theorising work-related learning and that may offer fruitful questions for re-considering the nature of professional learning and its assessment. Three perspectives in particular are outlined, all of which shift the focus from the learning subject to practice as material, emergent and systemic: complexity theory, actor-network theory and cultural-historical activity theory. The discussion concludes with possible approaches to assessment of professional practice suggested by these perspectives.

Conceptual Perspectives: Emerging Changes in the Assessment Paradigm

Extraordinary Learning in the Workplace, 2010

The primary aim of this book series is to provide a platform for exchanging experiences and knowledge about educational innovation and change in professional education and post-secondary education (engineering, law, medicine, management, health sciences, etc.). The series provides an opportunity to publish reviews, issues of general significance to theory development and research in professional education, and critical analysis of professional practice to the enhancement of educational innovation in the professions.

Transparency of cognitive complexity in performance assessments: A validity study

The Journal of Competency-Based Education

Competency-based education (CBE) assessment is undergoing a revolution in the teaching and learning councils of many countries, whose goal is to strengthen competency-based assessments (CBA) by increasing the use of high-quality performance assessments (PAs) rather than the standard multiple choice (MC) counterpart (Gallardo, 2020). According to Gallardo (2020), advantages of PAs for CBE include giving more meaning to complex targets, assessing students' ability to make decisions and solve problems, integrating knowledge, skills, and attitudes into assessment and feedback, giving the learning process an important role rather than only focusing on solutions and products, and being consistent with philosophical and pedagogical CBE basics. PAs offer a variety of attractive features consistent with these advantages such as authenticity and the ability to tap into higher order thinking skills (e.g.

Can assessment be a barrier to successful professional development?

Physical Therapy Reviews, 2017

In recent years, there has been a profound shift towards objectivity in high stakes clinical assessments, to reassure the regulators and the public that our graduating clinicians are competent. However, a recent report has suggested that since the introduction of high stakes assessment the relative levels of patient harm have increased. Although, direct causation has not been claimed it is incumbent upon responsible educators to reflect on the possibility that our students are passing the assessments but the assessments are not sophisticated enough to predict real-world competency. In addition, there has been an increasing focus of the student population on seeing the purpose of their clinical education being to pass assessments, rather than to treat patients. This unfortunate focus likely stems from their school education that develops a fixed task focused mindset. In this manuscript, the authors explore the potential issues over mindset and assessment sophistication, and offer possible solutions to tackle both problems.

A dialogical approach to developing professional competence in assessment

2012

Improving the students learning experience is closely connected with the promotion an implementation of an assessment strategy whose effectiveness relies on the quality of the formative aspect. Assessment can promote or hinder learning and it is therefore a powerful force to be reckoned within Education. The literature on assessment makes it quite clear that assessment shapes and drives learning in powerful, though not always helpful, ways (Ramsden, 1997). If we assume that assessment should maximise the opportunities for those assessed to learn and develop, the tendency to reduce assessment purely to a classification device should be counteracted. The demonstration of knowledge should reflect deeper forms of learning rather that regurgitation and parroting of undigested information. Furthermore traditional forms of assessment such as essays and end of term examinations,-which are still predominantly used in higher education in Ireland as the sole assessment methodswhile they may be valid and reliable methods for collecting evidence of acquisition of theoretical knowledge, they rarely afford students the opportunity to apply knowledge to key professional scenarios.

Mulder, M. (2014). Conceptions of Professional Competence.

Professional and practice-based learning is a process which manifests itself in many different forms. It differs by personal characteristics of the learners, levels of their professions, fields of practice, intentionality of their learning, and formalisation of the learning activities. Notions of competence have entered this diverse practice in many ways. The question is whether conceptions of professional competence have helped the practice of professional and practice-based learning. In this chapter it is argued that this is indeed the case. Although various attempts to implement competence-based professional learning programmes were heavily criticized, later developments in competence theory and research gave new insights which emphasized the integrative meaning of competence within professional practice. It helped in mapping professional fields from a domain-specific as well as a generic behavioural perspective. This chapter goes into the roots of the competence movement, and evaluates the contributions of these to the field of professional and practice-based learning. This is further illustrated with examples of different professions in which competence models have been and still are an effective means to map requirements for professional practice and to guide the evaluation and development of professional and practicebased learning programmes. What worked and did not work is then explained by distinguishing three approaches of conceptualizing competence which have been used in different contexts, and which have wide implications for professional and practicebased learning. The chapter concludes with the claim that current competence conceptions help mapping, focusing and assessing professional and practice-based learning.