Implementing Formative Assessment at the Workplace: A Retrospective Analyses

Abstract

[EN] Nurturing formative assessment at the workplace is worthwhile to enhance students’ learning in real performance. Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) is a work based assessment conducted at the community clinic during Family Medicine posting at the Faculty of Medicine of The National University of Malaysia. As part of formative assessment, students would be given immediate feedback after performing the first mini-CEX to improve their performance in the following mini-CEXs examination. This study was designed to evaluate the final year medical students’ achievement in formative assessment at the workplace. A quasi-experimental with repeated intervention methodological design by analysing a the scores of a group of 232 final year medical students who performed in mini-CEX 1 without receiving a feedback (intervention), and the scores after receiving a feedback in mini-CEX 2 and mini-CEX 3. This study was conducted at the Family Medicine Department in Faculty of Medicine, The National University of Malaysia. The data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 19.0. A One-Way Repeated Measures ANOVA was conducted to compare mean scores in three mini CEXs (mini-CEX 1 and mini-CEX 2 and mini-CEX 3). The mean score of the students’ achievement was 5.35±0.84 on the mini-CEX 1; 5.8±0.82 on the miniCEX 2; and 5.79±0.78 on the mini-CEX 3. The ANOVA showed that the mean scores were significantly different, F(2,462) = 34.36, p<0.0005). Further analyses showed that there were significant improvement of the students’ achievement in mini-CEX 2 or mini-CEX 3 compare to mini-CEX 1 (p<0.0005). However, result showed a non-significant improvement between mini-CEX 2 and mini-CEX 3. We concluded the element of feedback at the end of mini-CEX’s in the formative assessment may contribute to the improvement of the students’ achievement. The authenticity of the mini-CEX assessment and the reliability of the mini-CEX scores might explained to the poor students’ achievement. Further analyses are critical to explore the content of the feedback and its relation to the students’ achievement.