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Evaluation of Student Achievement and Educational Outcomes
Author(s) -
Williams Patricia B.,
Lathers Claire M.,
Smith Cedric M.,
Payer Andrew,
Volle Robert L.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
the journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.92
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1552-4604
pISSN - 0091-2700
DOI - 10.1177/00912700122012841
Subject(s) - curriculum , process (computing) , certification , test (biology) , task (project management) , mathematics education , medical education , recall , psychology , achievement test , computer science , cognition , standardized test , pedagogy , medicine , engineering , paleontology , systems engineering , political science , law , cognitive psychology , biology , operating system , neuroscience
Development of problem‐solving skills is vital to professional education as is factual recall. Student mastery must be measured to document student achievement required for completion of educational requirements and professional certification. These measurements also help determine if the educational process is meeting its goal of helping students develop critical cognitive skills fortherapeutic problem solving. Testing student growth in the ability to solve problems is less understood. Stressing integration of information across disciplines to derive answers is also important. Test items should resemble the real‐world task that students are expected to master. That is really the essence of content validity, which means faculty should be biased toward presenting information that way. This article is based on a symposium presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology in September 1996. Symposium goals were to define purposes and uses of student evaluations by type and format, including application of techniques that improve evaluation, precision, and validity. Technical applications of computer‐based learningand evaluation of problem‐solving skills are described. Actual experience with evaluation of problem solving in the curriculum is discussed. The process by which a medical school developed and implemented an evaluation system for a new problem‐based curriculum is presented, followed by a critique of the successes and problems encountered duringthe first year of implementation. Criteria that a well‐constructed evaluation program must meet are explored. The approach and philosophy of national standardized testing centers are explained.