SELF ASSESSMENT

“A systematic analysis and evaluation of a self assessment tool that supports competency certification”

Module 102

Dr Shamim Pandor

November 2011

Table of contents

Assessment1

Formative and Summative Assessment1

Demonstrating Competence through Continual Professional Development (CPD)2

CPD and Self-Assessment3

Definitions of Self-assessment4

Validity, reliability and accuracy of Self-assessment5

Can self-assessment can it be made more valid, accurate and reliable?6

Feedback8

Self-assessment - Is it Useful9

A tool to improve performance9

Promotes better understanding of what is expected of the individual9

Promotes self-directed learning and reflection9

Self-assessment - what could we improve?10

Conclusions10

Bibliography12

Knowledge and Skills Assessment Tool14

Appendix 214

Personal Learning Plan14

Musculoskeletal Competency Framework14

Introduction

Being the the Clinical Lead for a multi-disciplinary team of Extended Scope Physiotherapists (ESP) and General Practitioners with Special Interest (GPwSI), I am working within the field of Musculoskeletal Medicine (MSK). I work closely with a Consultant Physiotherapist developing a Self Assessment Tool, which supports the development of an individual Learning Plan. I will give a review of the research evidence on self-assessment and critique the tool in light of this evidence.

Assessment

To understand the tools of assessment, it is essential to understand assessment and the factors involved. When considering assessment, it should be noted that it serves a number of functions (Epstein, Pp. 387-396, Walker, Pp. 54). The purpose of the assessment tool was to identify learning needs, to motivate learning activities, to promote reflection, and we hoped it would aid teaching style and content (Race et al., Pp. 36). We also hoped it would enable individuals to produce an individual learning plan that would eventually lead to the demonstration of competence. Therefore, our self-assessment tool was formative in nature.

Formative and Summative Assessment

The impact of this endeavor is measured by summative external (the national standardized COMPASS Test) and internal (departmentally designed) assessment instruments. The research is guided by three primary hypotheses. First, the use of formative assessment could reveal the levels of conceptual understanding in a timely manner allowing for continuous readjustment of teaching and learning strategies, thus improving student academic achievement. Second, an increase in frequency of formative assessment will provide better results on summative assessment. Third, the results achieved on valid and reliable internal summative assessments are an accurate predictor of the external examination scores.

In the main, there are two assessments - summative and formative. In the case of formative assessment, it is used to guide future learning and promote reflective practice (Epstein, Pp. 387-396). Numerous studies have shown that formative assessment contributes to learning. Black and William (P Black, Pp. 66) strongly argue with valuable feedback self-assessment can contribute to mastery learning, assessment by portfolios and it can be used for summative purposes. By contrast, in summative assessment judgements are made on performance at the end of a course (Walker, Pp. 54) and are used for the purposes of certification and fitness to practice.

Demonstrating Competence through Continual Professional Development (CPD)

Creating the data requires both knowledge and skill, suggesting a need for professional development. Teachers need to understand the basic tenets of curriculum development: truly understanding the content standards, developing vertical alignment from those standards, enhancing specificity within the curriculum documents, and ...