How Do We Measure Student Achievement During Placements?

Margaret FisherCeppl Activity Lead/ Senior Lecturer in Midwifery/ Academic Lead Placement Development Team,

University of Plymouth

www.placementlearning.org

Email: mfisher@plymouth.ac.uk

2nd DIETS Conference, 26/9/08

Introduction and overview

• The importance of placements and practice assessment

• Evidence from the literature

• Ceppl project: Assessment of Practice

• Application in Midwifery – an electronic portfolio

• Summary and questions

The importance of placements and

practice assessment

• Real-life exposure – environment and role models

• Enables assessment of practice skills

• Variety of placements

• Methods of assessment need to be valid, reliable and appropriate

Evidence from the literature

•Assessment of practice is crucial in determining whether or not a student meets the criteria required of their profession, thus ensuring safety of the public

UKCC 1999, Watkins 2000, Cowburn et al 2000

•Defining competence has long been a challenge

Cowan et al 2005

•Efforts to ‘measure’ competence and professional abilities have resulted in a wide variety of methods of assessment

Baume and Yorke 2002, McMullan et al 2003

•Unless outcomes are clear, the result may be that the student focuses too heavily on completing the portfolio [or other tool] rather than learning from the experience itself

Scholes et al 2004

•Reflections on practice may form part of portfolio assessments, and this process may also contribute to the student’s learning

Mountford and Rogers 1996

So:

• clear purpose and outcomes

• effective and objective measurement of competence

• contribution of the assessment process to students’ learning

are important factors to consider

Ceppl project: Assessment of Practice

• Longitudinal case studies

• Staff focus groups

• Literature search

• Trawl of websites

• Conference networking

Aim

To establish an evidence-based set of key principles and

resources to guide

Assessment of Practice,

relevant across professional boundaries.

Research Questions

1. What are perceptions of validity and reliability of the practice assessment methods used?

2. What are perceptions of the impact of the practice assessment process on the student learning experience?

Methodology

• 14 participants from Midwifery, Social Work and Emergency Care programmes (nurses and paramedics)

• Semi-structured interviews at the end of each year

• Longitudinal case study approach• Single-case and cross-case analysis

and synthesis of findings – “Framework technique”

Ritchie and Spencer 1984

Key themes

People

GUIDANCE

Consistency

Becoming a

professional Doing the job

PURPOSE

PROCESS

Timing Clarity Placements

Paperwork

Methods used

1. Portfolios

2. Reflections

3. Tripartites/ 3-way meetings

4. Criterion referenced assessments

5. Conversations

6. Observations

7. OSCEs

1. Portfolios

Provide focusEvidence of

capability/ achievement

Encourage student as see their progress

Self-directedMotivate learning

×Prescriptive/ restrictive (“tick boxes”)×Weighting of marks

unbalanced/ difficult to assess×Potential to “cheat

the system”×Bulk (paper format)×Heavy workload

2. Reflections

Aid and extend learning

Enable development and growth

May be reliable

× Do not always reflect the reality of practice

× Potential to “blur the edges”

× Don’t necessarily gain from “ticking the boxes”

× May be unreliable

3. Tripartites/ 3-way meetings Useful checkpoint Opportunity to reflect

on progress and learning

Opportunity to get feedback from mentor and tutor

Enable clarification of issues

Student-centred Reliable if student and

mentor have worked closely together

× Difficult to arrange× May be challenging to

express conflicting opinions

× Likened to a “parent’s evening”

× Some students though mentor and tutor should also have private discussion

4. Criterion referenced assessment

Focused learning

Best if continuous assessment

Mostly valid, reliable and achievable

× Criteria not always relevant to placement

× Some criteria ambiguous/ overly complex/ unclear

× Dependent on professional judgement and experience of mentor

5. Conversations

Useful feedback

Demonstrate communication skills

× Difficult to organise

× Caused anxiety

6. Observations

Benefit from feedback from different people

Assess attitudes to service-users

Valid and reliable

× Did not always reflect real practice

× Difficult to arrange/ heavy workload

× Restrictive× Inconsistency of

assessors× Would prefer to be

shadowed for a day

7. OSCEs(Objective Structured Clinical Examinations)

Reflect real practice Provide focus Consistent Enjoyable Well prepared Put students’

knowledge to use Huge impact on

learning Useful/ best way of

assessing practice

× Pressurised/ stressful

× False environment

× Not holistic

Application in Midwifery – an electronic portfolio

Portfolio work-party

Decision to develop part-paper (summative) and part-electronic (formative/ evidence learning) portfolio

E-portfolio developed → “Wiki’s”

Pilot study Demonstration

Key findings from the pilot

• Guidelines: very positive evaluation by all, but face-to-face explanation recommended in addition

• Hyperlinks: logical system; tricky to begin with but became easier with use; particularly useful when making external links (eg: to national guidelines)

“Hyperlinks are good as it shows evidence of learning” (S)

• Uncertain how readily accessible in clinical area

• Students liked the fact that the personal tutor would have access and provide formative feedback

• Variety of learning styles and IT skills amongst student respondents but this did not appear to affect whether or not students were able to cope with the new format

Summary

→

Clear understanding of

PURPOSE

Safe, competent

PRACTITIONERS

who have achieved

PERSONAL and

PROFESSIONAL

GROWTH

Clear, consistent and timely

PREPARATION

Optimise the

PROCESS

People Placement Paperwork