Supervisor assessments are critical for both formative and summative assessment in the workplace. Supervisor ratings remain an important source of such assessment in many educational jurisdictions even though there is ambiguity about their validity and reliability. The aims of this evaluation is to explore the: (1) construct validity of ward-based…

The challenges of teaching students to reflect on experience and, thus, learn from it, are better understood with the application of constructs from cognitive psychology. The present paper focuses on two such constructs--self-schemas and scripts--to help educators better understand both the threats and opportunities associated with effective…

The purpose of this study is threefold: (1) to develop an automated, computer-based method to detect heuristics and biases as pathologists examine virtual slide cases, (2) to measure the frequency and distribution of heuristics and errors across three levels of training, and (3) to examine relationships of heuristics to biases, and biases to…

Few educational studies have investigated how well information learned by medical students is retained over time. The primary aim of this study was to investigate how much of the paediatric core curriculum undergraduates remembered a year after originally passing their paediatrics examination. In addition, we looked at whether students'…

Although simulation training improves post-training performance, it is unclear how well performance soon after simulation training predicts longer term outcomes (i.e., learning). Here our objective was to assess the predictive value of performance 1 h post-training of performance 6 weeks later. We trained 84 first year medical students a simulated…

Weaknesses in the nature of rater judgments are generally considered to compromise the utility of workplace-based assessment (WBA). In order to gain insight into the underpinnings of rater behaviours, we investigated how raters form impressions of and make judgments on trainee performance. Using theoretical frameworks of social cognition and…

The feedback sandwich technique-make positive comments; provide critique; end with positive comments-is commonly recommended to feedback givers despite scant evidence of its efficacy. These two studies (N = 20; N = 350) of written peer feedback with third-year medical students on clinical patient note-writing assignments indicate that students…

Context: The PRACTICUM Institute has developed large-scale international programs of on-line continuing professional development (CPD) based on self-testing and feedback using the Practicum Script Concordance Test© (PSCT). Aims: To examine the psychometric consequences of pooling the responses of panelists from different countries (composite…

Medical educators aim to train physicians with sound scientific knowledge, expert clinical skills and an ability to work effectively with patients, colleagues and health systems. Over the past century, educators have devoted considerable thought and effort to how medical education might be improved. Analysing the language used to describe these…

Previous research has shown that repeated retrieval with written tests produces superior long-term retention compared to repeated study. However, the degree to which this increased retention transfers to clinical application has not been investigated. In addition, increased retention obtained through written testing has not been compared to other…

Empirical studies and conceptual frameworks presented in the extant literature offer a static imagining of academic failure. Time-to-event analysis, which captures the dynamism of individual factors, as when they determine the failure to properly tailor timely strategies, impose longitudinal studies which are still lacking within the field. The…

There is a need for valid methods to assess the readiness for clinical practice of medical graduates. This study evaluates the validity of Utrecht Hamburg Trainee Responsibility for Unfamiliar Situations Test (UHTRUST), an authentic simulation procedure to assess whether medical trainees are ready to be entrusted with unfamiliar clinical tasks…

High School, Aptitude and Achievement Tests have been utilized since 2002 in Saudi Arabia for the purpose of student selection to health sciences and medical colleges. However, longitudinal studies determining the predictive validity of these so-called cognitive tests for in-course performance is lacking. Our aim was to assess the predictive…

Participant attrition may be a significant threat to the generalizability of the results of educational research studies if participants who do not persist in a study differ from those who do in ways that can affect the experimental outcomes. A multi-center trial of the efficacy of different computer-based instructional strategies gave us the…

The study explored the ways in which qualified and trainee clinical psychologists perceived professional behaviour, as illustrated in a series of short vignettes, in student and clinical practice contexts. Comparisons were made to identify the extent to which ideas of professionalism differed across different learning contexts and between…