An innovative problem-solving assessment for groups of first-year medical undergraduates--Think Tanks

A problem-solving assessment has been devised and used for groups of first-year medical students at Southampton University. Five cohorts of approximately 160 students have taken the assessment since 1990. The assessment was part of a Locomotor system course that integrated biological and behavioural sciences and clinical specialties. The course also included lectures, practicals and tutorials and occupied the first 7 weeks of the last (10-week) term. Other assessments of the course involved essay writing and a spotter-type practical. For the problem-solving assessment, groups of about six students ('Think Tanks') received a problem which they had to investigate during the course. The students had some choice in the problem they were to study. The problems were designed, by staff, to cover aspects of movement in the context of health and disease. A staff advisor was assigned to each Think Tank group to provide general support. The results of the investigations of each Think Tank were displayed at the end of the course in the form of a poster aimed at informing their peers. Three members of staff gave each Think Tank group a communal oral examination and the performance of the group was given a grade. Each member of the group, normally, was allowed to add this grade to their marks for the whole year.