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A situational judgement test of professional behaviour: development and validation
Sebastian Schubert1, Heiderose Ortwein, Antje Dumitsch
1Assessment Division and Reformed Medical Curriculum Working Group, Deanery of Student Affairs, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin. sebastian.schubert@charite.de
Medical Teacher
|June 26, 2008
Summary
Developing a situational judgement test (SJT) for medical students
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Professionalism Assessment
Background:
- Assessing professional behavior in medical students is crucial.
- Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) offer a method for evaluating professional judgment.
Purpose of the Study:
- To detail the creation of a single best answer multiple-choice SJT for assessing medical students' professional behavior.
- To present expert validation findings for the developed SJT.
- To outline experiences with two distinct validation formats.
Main Methods:
- A 17-vignette, 35-question SJT was constructed based on educational objectives and professional behavior scenarios.
- Best answers were evidence-based.
- Forty-four experts validated the SJT using either rank-order or rating scales.
Main Results:
- Over two-thirds expert agreement on a best answer was achieved for 16 questions (rating group), 13 (ranking group), and 12 (both groups).
- Some experts in the ranking group struggled to select a single best answer.
- In the rating group, some experts found no provided options adequate.
Conclusions:
- Defining the construct of professional behavior and achieving expert consensus remains challenging.
- Both rank-order and rating scales present unique advantages and disadvantages for SJT validation.
- The two-thirds agreement criterion may need adjustment based on the specific assessment goals.
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