Formative Assessment in Health Care Education
Abstract
This paper is the result of a substantial review of the literature on formative and summative assessment in education. The authors incorporate common challenges in health care educational programs, while presenting opportunities to overcome them. The goal of assessment is to measure learning; however students often view assessment as the assigning of discriminatory summative grades. Health care educators work within a system that rewards “teaching to the test” leaving students with vast knowledge gaps and an inability to become a lifelong learner. Upon graduation, students find themselves unable to adapt to an evolving discipline specific knowledge base which requires self motivation for continuing their education. The literature demonstrates how changing from a summative assessment model to a formative assessment model can improve health care educator’s abilities to create self-regulated learners.