In this study, the authors examine the quality of the evidence represented in preservice teacher portfolios and the inferences drawn from them. Questions of purpose and representation of teaching in the portfolios are also addressed. The study is based on three teacher education programs in which students develop portfolios in preparation for initial licensure. Program guidelines, portfolios, and other assessment materials were analyzed. Interviews were conducted with students and faculty members; focus groups with students and surveys were also used for this study. What emerges is a pressing concern among teacher educators to rally evidence that the students are "meeting the standards" without much opportunity for meaningful dialogue and debate about education, teaching, and learning. In constructing portfolios, students use evidence and artifacts interchangeably to mean something tangible used to display a particular teaching activity, belief, or skill, and their notions of explanation and reflection are quite problematic.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the content-specificity of communication skills. It investigates the reliability and dimensionality of standardized patient (SP) ratings of communication skills in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for final year medical students. An OSCE consisting of seven standardized patient (SP) encounters was administered to final-year medical students at four medical schools that are members of the California Consortium for the Assessment of Clinical Competence (N = 567). For each case, SPs rated students' communication skills on the same seven items. Internal consistency coefficients were calculated and a two-facet generalizability study was performed to investigate the reliability of the scores. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the dimensionality of the exam. Findings indicate that communication skills across the seven-case examination demonstrate a reliable generic component that supports relative decision making, but that a significant case-by-student interaction exists. The underlying structure further supports the case-specific nature of students' ability to communicate with patients. From these findings, it is evident that individual's communication skills vary systematically with specific cases. Implications include the need to consider the range of communication skill demands made across the OSCE to support generalization of findings, the need for instruction to provide feedback on communication skills in multiple contexts, and the need for research to further examine the student, patient, and presenting problem as sources of variation in communication skills.
For more than 10 years now, arguments have been constructed regarding the need for new forms of educational assessment, and for a paradigm shift with a focus on supporting learning rather than on sorting and selecting students. The call for change in assessment follows an almost unanimous recognition of the limitations of current measurement theory and practice. The conceptions of learning represented by theories of learning and cognition appear strikingly different from those implied in current educational assessment and measurement practices. Indeed, most educational measurement specialists are still working from century-old understandings and behaviorist perspectives. Although the call for change is clear, the proposals and recommendations being put forward have limitations of their own and are unlikely to yield the kinds of fundamental changes envisioned by researchers. These limitations lie either in the focus of the work, in the lack of a clear articulation of the theories and concepts, in the nature of the assumptions made about learning (many of which remain implicit and unchanged), in the exclusion of certain conceptions of learning, or in some combination of these problems. This article explores the possibility of using inquiry as a way to understand, and hence to assess, learning. After an initial review of the assessment literature in which the need for change has been asserted and analysis of the theoretical and epistemological foundations that seem to undergird these writings, the focus shifts to the meaning of learning, knowing, and teaching implied in this literature and to the limitations of its recommendations. Later sections consider notions of learning that seem to be excluded from current assessment practices and begin to uncover similarities between learning, knowing, and inquiring that could make inquiry an appropriate metaphor for what we currently know as educational assessment. Finally, there is discussion of important issues that would need to be considered in an inquiry framework for assessment.
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