Assessment, Learning & Teaching Reflections |
Wednesday 18 January
Assessment of skill associated with clinical practice is essential to professional courses, such as those related to health. Learning outcomes are set and students are ultimately judged summatively against these outcomes in clinical practice. Motivation for student learning is very often “number-driven”, in that the student’s primary goal is to achieve the highest possible mark toward their award classification. It is disheartening when students focus solely on number and do not embrace the rich, contextual learning opportunities offered to them during clinical practice – opportunities that are impossible to experience in any other way, and opportunities that are fundamental to professional development.
Student debriefing within the University, on the final day of clinical practice, has been implemented recently within the undergraduate physiotherapy course. Its purpose is to engage the students in formal and structured reflective activities in order to allow “closure” on one episode of learning, facilitate the “opening” of another via learning planning activities, and identify transferable learning opportunities and ongoing needs. Sharing of experiences and ideas is key….imagine my exhilaration when one student indicated that students should not be thinking only about a final mark, but should think about what they have learned during the clinical practice placement instead!
Sara Eastburn
Senior Lecturer/Teacher Fellow
Faculty of Health
