Medical Education in South Africa: assessment practices in a developing country

textabstractThis thesis addresses the topic of student assessment as it pertains to the training of medical practitioners in South Africa. The specific aspects of assessment that constitute the main focus of attention of this dissertation are: (1) the purpose of assessment, and (2) the utility of assessment. As will become clear from the literature overview, these two aspects of assessment are closely related, indeed intertwined. Assessment serves three fundamental purposes: (1) to measure student achievement in order to make decisions regarding selection, placement, promotion to the next year of study, graduation and certification, (2) to facilitate student learning and (3) to improve the quality of training programmes by initiating and sustaining curriculum change. While the measurement of student achievement is a widely recognised and extensively used function of assessment, the other important role, which is to improve the quality of education, is often neglected. This is not due to a lack of recognition of the educational impact of assessment on both student learning and curriculum development and change, but rather an overemphasis of one purpose at the expense of the others. In this thesis, the term “utility” is understood to mean the “perceived usefulness or f