Significance of Serial formative assessment on the teaching learning process

Abstract

Introduction Assessment is an important driving force behind an effective teaching-learning process; since assessment measures the outcome as per the objective of the education, hence it determines the entire lesson plan for apposite alignment with the curriculum. The assessment process steers the learners with a positive pull towards the desired outcome. Both the summative and formative assessments focus on how the individual student display his level of understanding. Material & Methods The study design was longitudinal follow-up study. The study was undertaken to find out any positive trend of performance in terms of both cognitive and psychomotor skills of students in successive formative examinations. The study included 50 medical students of first professional batch of AIIMS Kalyani from Department of Biochemistry during 2019-2020. The formative assessment tests included 3 theory examinations, 3 case-based problem-solving (CBP), 4 objectively structured practical examinations (OSPE) and 3 viva-voce, with almost regular time intervals. Results Both the results of the theory exams and Case based problem showed gradual significant increase in the percentage of marks from the initial assessment (p<0.01). For psychomotor domain assessment through OSPE, for almost all the classes statistically insignificant but an apparently declining trend has been observed; particularly a significant trailing trend for class 2 learners was found. Conclusions Competency-based curriculum needs validation through consistent assessment system. Towards this end the present study might open up new vistas for incorporation of the proper competency-based curriculum aligned with the suitable assessment process to develop an efficient medical education program.