Dynamic assessment and the “Interactive Examination”

To assess own actions and define individual learning needs is fundamental for professional development. The development of self-assessment skills requires practice and feedback during the course of studies. The “Interactive Examination” is a methodology aiming to assist students developing their self-assessment skills. The present study describes the methodology and presents the results from a multicentre evaluation study at the Faculty of Odontology (OD) and School of Teacher Education (LUT) at Malmö University, Sweden. During the examination, students assessed their own competence and their self-assessments were matched to the judgement of their instructors (OD) or to their examination results (LUT). Students then received a personal task, which they had to respond to in written text. After submitting their response, the students received a document representing the way an “expert” in the field chose to deal with the same task. They then had to prepare a “comparison document”, where they identified differences between their own and the “expert” answer. Results showed that students appreciated the examination in both institutions. There was a somewhat different pattern of self-assessment in the two centres, and the qualitative analysis of students’ comparison documents also revealed some interesting institutional differences.