Elizabeth Norman

Citation

Thesis Title
Judging competency: A study of in-training evaluation of veterinary students

Read article at Massey Research Online:

When veterinary students graduate from Massey University, they are immediately eligible to practise as veterinarians. Therefore, before graduation, we need to evaluate the student's competency. However, evaluating competency is difficult, and commonly used methods are much criticised. Mrs Norman characterised the student performance valued by supervisors, and what informs evaluation scores, using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative techniques. She found that the evaluation captured aspects of performance that aligned well with the intentions of the assessment, and generally well with veterinary competency frameworks. Influential aspects of student performance were engagement and trustworthiness. Assessor's judgement was multidimensional, holistic, and discriminating; findings that contrast with criticisms of workplace-based evaluations. Her research sheds light on the validity of competency evaluations and the complexity of assessor judgement. It has implications for the meaning of veterinary competency and how it is assessed in the workplace.

Supervisors
Associate Professor Peter Rawlins
Dr Linda Leach