Conference time: -
Raising students' meta-cognition (self-assessment) abilities

"Certainty-Based Marking (CBM) for reflective learning and proper knowledge assessment"
Prof Tony Gardner-Medwin, University College London, UK
Dr Nancy Curtin, Imperial College London, UK

"Developing clinical self-assessment skills in first-year dental students"
Assoc Prof Tracy Winning, Dimitra Lekkas, & Prof Grant Townsend, Universtiy of Adelaide, Australia

Expert facilitator: Dr. Nigel Watson, University of Strathclyde folder icon Download review

Please download case study texts by both authors by clicking the links below.

folder icon Read the Gardner-Medwin & Curtin case study (Download will open in a new window)

Overview: Certainty Based Marking (CBM) involves asking students not only the answer to an objective question, but also how certain they are that their answer is correct. The mark scheme rewards accurate reporting of certainty and good discrimination between more and less reliable answers. This encourages reflection about justification and soundness of relevant knowledge and skills, and probes weaknesses more deeply. It is easily implemented with existing test material, popular with students, grounded firmly in information theory and proven to enhance the quality of exam data. We report our experience with CBM and raise questions about constructive, fair and efficient assessment.

folder icon Read the Winning et al case study (Download will open in a new window)

Overview: The hidden nature of dentistry and the rapidly changing practice environment require our graduates to be effective self-assessors, to ensure that they are competent life-long learners. The assessment literature indicates that if students do not develop an understanding of assessment processes then their learning outcomes will be limited. Therefore, this showcase focuses on how we support our first-year dental students to understand our assessment processes, particularly related to development of their self-assessment capabilities. Students participate in weekly self-assessment of their clinic performance using current criteria/standards and in a series of specifically designed workshops, involving observation of videos depicting ‘peers’ completing relevant clinical activities. They also practise applying criteria to assess performance of 'peers' in the videos, supported by discussion with peers and tutors, and reflection through critiquing their own assessments. The outcomes from these activities will inform how our self-assessment/feedback activities can be designed to support development of dental graduates as effective life-long learners.

Session details


A chat session was held here with the Authors and Expert facilitator on the 30th May from 09:00 - 10:00 UK time (BST). You may view a transcript of this chat from the link below.

folder icon Chat transcript - Raising students' meta-cognition (self-assessment) abilities

The discussion forum will be open throughout the conference, and can be accessed through the 'Join the discussion' link below.


 

 Join the Discussion

Use the 'Join the Discussion' link to view all the posts for this session. As a taster, below are the last 5 posts for this session's discussion fora.


 
RE: Clinical self-assessment TraceyWinning | 05/06/2007 02:41
TraceyWinningJane, A good point - we are lucky in the earlier years to have staff who are pretty well totally committed to the process of self-assessment. The main resistance we experience relates to the time it takes to give the level of feedback we like to ...
RE: Clinical Skills self-assessment and reflective practice TraceyWinning | 05/06/2007 02:35
TraceyWinningJane, Sorry I haven't responded earlier - I seemed to have missed some messages. Happy for you to pass on our paper to your colleagues - comparing notes is a very useful exercise. I will have to do a search on self-assessment and reflective ...
BAD PRACTICE to include a "don't know" option TonyGardner-Medwin | 31/05/2007 17:48
TonyGardner-Medwin From Jane MacKenzie: Hi Tony, I'll pick up one of your provocative thoughts. You say: "4. It is (common) BAD PRACTICE to include a 'Don't Know' option with T/F or Best-Option Qs." Could you elaborate cos I just don't see why? ................ T...
RE: Provocative Thoughts TonyGardner-Medwin | 31/05/2007 17:35
TonyGardner-Medwin Fair enough! Some of these points are actually covered in slides from a recent Physiological Soc presentation* that you can see at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucgbarg/tea/UCL06_tw_ppt.pdf . I'll answer your "don't know" point in a separate topic.Thanks in...
RE: Individualistic or peer? SteveDraper | 31/05/2007 15:50
SteveDraperTony Thanks for those replies. I should have anticipated them for what else you've written, really. I suppose (this is a comment about style), that in the best tradition of science papers, you write about CBM in a single minded way, because ...