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Problems with using a supervisor’s report as a form of summative assessment

¹ Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Otago, and Royal Australasian College of Physicians, New Zealand
² Royal College of Physicians, London, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Professor Tim J Wilkinson
Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences, C/- The Princess Margaret Hospital, PO Box 800, Christchurch, New Zealand; tim.wilkinson@chmeds.ac.nz

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Within clinical medicine, the apprenticeship model is traditional, and highly valued. It relies on a close relationship between a supervisor and a trainee. When it comes to assessing the trainee, who better to ask than the supervisor? On the face of it, this approach makes good sense and has contributed to formalising ways of seeking such an opinion. As one source of feedback, such an opinion is highly valuable. In recent times, though, such reports are now being increasingly used as a form of summative assessment—that is, the basis on which decisions about the trainee’s progress are made. This practice relies on the assumption that such a report is always a valid and reliable assessment method. We wish to challenge this assumption. This paper aims to distil and explain the fundamental flaws of this type of assessment, and offers an alternative solution that not only aids learning, . . . [Full text of this article]