Principles for Developing Instruments To Assess Students' Clinical Skills

Abstract

When learning objectives specify that a student must be able to demonstrate a clinical skill, the most appropriate instruments currently available to evaluate that skill are checklists and/or rating scales. To construct reliable instruments of either type, one must (1) identify only significant observable elements in the performance to be rated, (2) clearly define each element, (3) describe each scale or checklist point clearly, (4) determine how discriminating the judgment can be and describe elements and ratings accordingly, (5) carefully consider the scoring procedures, (6) standardize test conditions to the greatest extent possible, (7) select raters who can be objective and train them to use the evaluation instruments carefully and consistently.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Highland

: A Guide for Use in Performance Testing in Air Force Technical Schools, ASPRL-TM-55-1, Lowry Air Force Base, CO, Armament Systems Personnel Research Laboratory, 1955.

Fitzpatrick

, Morrison

: Performance and Product Evaluation. In Educational Measurement, Thorn-dike

, Ed. Washington, DC, American Council on Education, 1971.

Selltiz

, Jahoda

, Deutsch

, Cook

: Research Methods in Social Relations. New York, Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1959.

Gronlund

: Measurement and Evaluation in Teaching, New York, Macmillan Co, 1971.

Kerlinger

: Foundations of Behavioral Research, New York, Holt, Reinhart, and Winston, 1973.

Mehrens

, Lehmann

: Measurement and Evaluation in Education and Psychology, New York, Holt, Reinhart and Winston, 1973.

Payne

: The Assessment of Learning: Cognitive and Affective, Lexington, MA, DC Heath and Company, 1974.

Rezler

: Constructing a Checklist. (A mimeographed document.) Chicago, Center for Educational Development, University of Illinois.

Schwab

: Measuring Performance. (A mimeographed document.) Chicago, Center for Educational Development, University of Illinois.

10.

Symonds

: Eliminating bias in evaluating students' achievement. Nurs Educ 52:610, 1952.

11.

Andrew

: The use of behavioral checklists to assess physical examination skills. J Med Educ 52:589, 1977.