Address by Prof. Ramesh C. Deka, Director, AIIMS, to the delegates of the National Workshop on Assessment Methods for Learning Evaluation in Basic Medical Sciences. 

Friends! Good morning to you all,.

“If you don’t know to which port, you are sailing, no wind is strong enough to make you reach there”.  So one has to set a goal.  One has to identify a purpose.  In other words, we have to make a purposeful, relevant curriculum of studies for our students of basic medical courses.  The quality of the assessment therefore can be considered in the context of the purpose.  Assessment is a contextual exercise.

To make a meaningful assessment, we need to have a deliberate process as:

            1.         Determine objectives

            2.         Determine and develop the content

            3.         Determine how students should demonstrate that they have met the objectives

            4.         Make a test blue print

            5.         Plan and deliver the required instructionfor the purpose

            6.         Develop the assessment components.

It is the basic medical training that will cause effects in making a future doctor.  Not just a doctor! Our goal is to make a competent doctor, or a research scientist in such a student of medicine.  Competence in medicine means having acquired the habitual and judicious use of communication, knowledge, skills, clinical thinking, reasoning, emotions, values and ethics and their reflections in daily practice for the benefit of the individuals and communities, being served.  The competence is contextual, reflecting the relationship between a person’s abilities and the tasks he or she is required to perform in a particular situation in the real world.  Competence is not an achievement, but rather a habit of life long learning.  In achieving this, assessment plays an important role, it helps a student identify and respond to their own learning needs.

There are two main ways of assessment: 1. Formative assessment, 2. Summative assessment.

            1.         Foundational knowledge: understanding &                                    remembering

            2.         Application: Thinking (critical, practical creative), managing complex projects and performance skills.  We need analytical and synthesizing abilities, leading to validation and decision making experiences and integration of knowledge.

            3.         Integration: interdisciplinary learning, learning communities, learning & living/working

            4.         Human dimensions: interpersonal, Team-culture, multicultural education, leadership, ethics, character, self authorship, citizenship and environmental ethics.

            5.         Caring: wanting to be learner with keen interest, responsibility for self

            6.         Learning to learn better, inquire and construct and to pursue self directed learning.

Developing confidence is of paramount importance in learning and achievement, and it is the formative assessment which helps students get motivated and it also, provides challenges to be faced and problems to be solved.  Every problem is an opportunity of learning and strengthening knowledge and confidence of doing things.  Thus, students can acquire true knowledge, skills and attitudes or true information/data and become confident to produce smart action.  It provides opportunities to learn and improve and develop self esteem.  Summative assessment provides a document of grades and helps in certification for jobs and higher education.  Those with low performances leading to lower grades feel low esteem and may be demotivating in life and this is one of the dangers of summative examination.

Confidence based learning is important.  It enjoys a unique process for measuring knowledge quality in four categories: True informed-smart action, misinformed-mistakes, doubt-hesitation and uninformed-paralysis.  Teachers have to make all efforts for students’ confidence building and self esteem for them to lead, a life with dignity and honour and he/she could be a productive citizen of India, and such a person remains motivated and can produce more successful results.

At the end, I would like to mention the Principles of Assessment:

Goals of assessment: Provide direction and motivation for future learning (knowledge), Protect the public by upholding high standard and meet public expectations.

What to assess: Habits of mind and behaviour, Acquisitions and applications of knowledge, skills, attitude and communication and professionalism and practice based learning etc.

How to assess: Multiple methods, MCQs, essay etc, short answer question, OSCE, practicals, direct observations and real life situations etc,

Cautions: Be aware of the unintended effects of testing, avoid punishing for short cuts.  Don’t assume quantitative data are always valid, reliable or useful than qualitative data.

Standardization of Curriculum and Assessment is essential in a university or a country.  It is to be balanced according to country based needs and also for meeting the global competition.

In making a doctor, he/she has to be safe as well.  Science of patients’ safety has to be incorporated in the curriculum and patient care guidelines, developed for safety of patients.  Cruelty to animals has to be avoided in animal experimental setting.  We have to follow national norms and guidelines in all such activities.

These are two main challenges in today’s knowledge society.  We have to make all endeavour to create a knowledge society which will be responsive and accountable to the society.  It will then make prosperity and happiness to people.

Prof. R.C. Deka

Director, AIIMS