Importance of Measurement and Assessment in Postgraduate Education

Abstract

Aim: Whether a specialization training program achieves its objectives or not is decided by showing that the graduates of the program have gained the expected knowledge, skills and behaviors. The measurement tools used in this decision require some specific knowledge and skills. The aim of this study was to analyze the questions asked in an examination and to investigate the suitability of the assistants and the education program in terms of educational sciences. Methods: Responses of Family Medicine residents to a multiple-choice test that consists of 50 items, conducted throughout the country. The questions were analyzed in terms of the connection with the educational objectives, the degree of difficulty, separation and distraction power. Results: Of the 150 questions asked, 20 were not found in the learning objectives. In the analysis of difficulties, 105 of the questions were easy and very easy questions; on the other hand, in the analysis of distraction, 27 out of 150 questions are sufficient for discriminating; in terms of distractors, all the distractors of the 19 problems were found to be functional. Conclusion: The examination is not suitable for the evaluation of both the residents and the program, because it is based on knowledge measurement by multiple choice quiz method, not being competency based, the questions are not included in the learning objectives, the disaggregation of the questions are weak, and the distractors are not working in a large majority. In order to avoid these situations, it would be appropriate for the family medicine trainers to undergo a training including the role and importance of measurement and assessment in education before taking the authority of assistant and program evaluation.