Assessment in Professional Education.

Overview & Synopsis

The assessment of professional programs at the undergraduate level is discussed (i.e., engineering, business, education, nursing, and other career-oriented fields). Presently, assessment in professional education relies almost exclusively on written or oral testing of a predetermined set of cognitive and analytical skills. This is followed by assessment of the ability to apply these skills to predetermined and well-defined problems and cases. Professional education and assessment need to focus more on the process of defining problems and making instrumental judgments, using a variety of real and simulated clinical experiences. Professionals need to be able to make choices among a number of possibilities, each of which optimizes one or more competing values. Professional competence requires dealing with complexity, tolerance for ambiguity, coping with discontinuity and disequilibrium, and risk-taking. Self-assessment is emerging as an integral part of professional competence, and, therefore, must become part of professional education. The effective use of the following methods in assessment are addressed: the case study method; simulation, role playing, and group discussion; and small group interactions. Specific reference is made to the education of engineers, managers, and medical personnel. (SW)