ERIC Number: ED260680
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1985-Oct
Pages: 24
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Assessment in Professional Education.
Elman, Sandra E.; Lynton, Ernest A.
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)
Descriptors: Business Administration Education, Case Studies, Clinical Experience, Competence, Critical Thinking, Engineering Education, Experiential Learning, Group Discussion, Higher Education, Medical Education, Outcomes of Education, Problem Solving, Professional Education, Role Playing, Self Evaluation (Individuals), Simulation, Student Evaluation
Publication Type: Opinion Papers; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Practitioners
Language: English
Sponsor: National Inst. of Education (ED), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the National Conference on Assessment in Higher Education, sponsored by the American Association for Higher Education, (Columbia, SC, October 13-15, 1985). Broken print will affect legibility.