ADEE 2021 Workshop The Complexity of Assessing Professionalism

Professionalism is an essential competence within the ADEE graduate framework, this makes the assessment of professionalism essential. However, it is complex and multifactorial, and the literature leads us to believe that any assessment should assess longitudinal progress and have a formative component. This means that assessment of professionalism, in whatever form, should embrace that complexity and summative assessments of it could well be counter-productive.

 A combination of multiple sources of assessment such as self/peer assessment, multi-source feedback, simulated encounters, faculty and patient observations, portfolios – reflective diaries/logbooks, mentoring and role modelling have all been suggested. This brings additional difficulties such as differing approaches, differing criteria, calibration of staff and the need to find the appropriate time within the curriculum.

How do we best address this within our dental education programmes?

The aim of this workshop is to discuss the current state of assessment in Professionalism within our Schools. We will examine the systems we use, their strengths and weaknesses, consider the complexity of assessing professionalism and explore/embrace the plurality of assessment in Professionalism.

The workshop will be led by members of the UK Council of Dental Teachers of Professionalism (DTOP) group, but we want to ensure we get as wide a perspective on the assessment of professionalism as possible and would welcome contributions for all members of ADEE.

The session will be of interest to all those involved in the teaching and assessment of professionalism, law and ethics within any dental education programme.