“Summative Assessment is a Waste of Time!” Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of an Assessment Programme
1. “Summative Assessment is a Waste of Time!”
Students’ and Teachers’ Perceptions of
an Assessment Programme
A Qualitative study in a PBL Curriculum
Dr. Hanan Al Kadri
Dr. Mohamed Al Moamary
KSAU-HS, COM. Saudi Arabia
Prof Cees van der Vleuten
Maastricht University. Netherlands
2. • Assessment affects what students learn
• Assessment affects how students learn
• Effects of assessment on learning been
reported
• Students’ approaches to learning and their
retention of knowledge differ
• Learning environment
• Assessment methods
• Controversies on its effect on deep approach
Introduction
3. Objectives
• Understand how and why students
differ in their approaches to learning
• Understand how assessment affects
deep learning
• Which barriers stand in the way of good
assessment and learning
4. Method
• Phenomenological study
• Examine what happens when students direct
their study strategies to fit with assessment
• How students and teachers experienced the
assessment programme
• We explored students’ perceptions in 7 semi-
structured group interviews
• Teachers perception in 12 semi-structured
individual interviews
5. Study Setting
• KSAU-HS, COM, Riyadh,
SA
• KAMC, a 900-bed
tertiary care centre
• Nov 2007 to March
2008
• PBL curriculum
• Four-year graduate
entry programme
7. Method cont’d.
Study population
• Stepwise purposeful
sampling
• Clinical years
• Each interviews attended
by 4 students
• Twelve teachers out of the
pool of clinical years block
directors and clinical
supervisors
Data collection
• Experiences with the
assessment programme
• Its effect on learning
activities and strategies
• Each interview lasted for
about 30-75 minutes.
• Reached saturation
• Voice taped and
transcribed
8. Data Analysis
• Atlas-ti (Version 5.2)
• Line by line scrutiny of the transcript
• Themes were identified
• Refined in a cyclic analytical process
• Investigators' triangulation
• Member checking
9. Results
Students’ and teachers’ perceptions of the assessment programme
• 28 students interviewed in seven focus group
interviews
• Mean age and mean GPA at graduation were similar
between participating and non-participating
students
• 12 teachers were interviewed
• Four themes were generated
Summative assessment Formative assessment
Continuous assessment Curriculum objectives
10. Summative Assessment
• Preferred summative as discriminating factor
• Didn’t agree upon its effect on future
performance
• Doubtful opinion on the role of summative
assessment in graduating better practicing
doctors
• Were not able to decide the superiority of
summative or formative assessment
11. Summative Assessment cont’d.
• Summative assessment caused anxiety
This stressful situation makes them resort to
sporadic, patchy reading
neglect the exam resulting marks
• Summative assessment had no driving role in their
learning, unfair, carries no educational message and
waste of time!
• In reaction to this students became marks hunters,
practicing several studying strategies
holistic reading
strategic and selective reading
selected objectives, preferences, type of exam, supervisors personality
12. Formative Assessment
• Majority of students preferred formative
• Helped to identify their learning objectives and
improve their study strategy
• Teachers didn’t decline the importance of formative
assessment
• Teachers thought that it is time consuming,
increasing it will a be waste of time!
• Teachers took into consideration the effect of the
college’s education culture on the implementation
of formative assessment
13. Continuous Attachment-related Assessment
• Was preferred by the students
encourage them to read
keep up to the maximum
the best way to monitor the students
• Its weight should be sufficient to
stimulate clinical learning
• Most of the teachers agreed with the
students
14. Curriculum Objectives
• Assessment that reflects the curriculum’s
objectives considered to be fair and
reliable
• Assessment should not be standardised
• Teachers noted various objectives
problems
• Awareness of the objectives is a must
15. Conclusion
• Assessment affects students perception to
learning and how do they learn
• These effects are not uniformly positive
• Summative assessment programme offers
little inducement to engage in deep learning
• Students showed a clear preference for
formative and continuous assessment, which
may foster a deeper approach to learning
16. Conclusion cont’d
• It is important to be aware of differing views being
held by students and teachers
• Faculty improvement program and faculty time are
important infra structure for formative assessment
implementation
• Efforts to achieve more clinically relevant
assessment with adequate balance between its
various types is required
• Research are needed to decide this balance
