The role of the student in formative assessment
Traditionally the emphasis on 'summative assessment' or 'assessment for measurement' has necessitated excluding the student from the writing of assessment items. The advantages of student involvement in areas of the undergraduate curriculum that are traditionally the domain of the faculty or 'experts' has been described in the literature (Duffy & O'Neill, 2003; Rudkin et. al., 1999). Formative assessment (Black & Wiliam, 1998; Sadler, 1989), Sustainable assessment (Boud, 2000) and Assessment for Learning however, open up exciting opportunities for involving the student in the development of assessment items and the removal of 'artificial performance ceilings' (Sadler, 1989).
Professional behaviors include assessment skills in a wide range of contexts ranging from clinical practice to 360° staff evaluation. A trend towards increased use of authentic teaching settings and assessment strategies, and a drive to increase the reliability of assessment in undergraduate medical education by increasing the number of assessments and the number of judges, has led to practicing clinicians being increasingly involved in assessment. The exclusion of students from the development of assessment items due to the emphasis on the use of assessment for measurement has excluded students from an essential part of the assessment cycle. It prevents them from participating in the full range of professional behaviors and omits an important class of learning outcomes from the curriculum.
Item writing involves high level cognitive skills. The creation of an authentic vignette and the focus of the question onto an important topic require reflective reference to experiential learning and an understanding of the curriculum. Choice of feasible distracters that encourage clinical reasoning requires an understanding of the common areas of misunderstanding and important discriminatory factors. The item writer has to relate the specific item to the whole from which it is drawn and engage in a deep approach to learning (Marton & Booth, 1997). The writing of feed-forward requires high level teaching skills and excellent communication skills. Item writers worked in pairs and teams and this inevitably requires team, interpersonal and communication skills. Also item writers need to be fluent with the item writing environment - how to access a wide range of resources, how to use IT software and access expert colleagues for advice.
