Institute for Clinical Education, University of Plymouth, UK.
Med Educ. 2009 Dec;43(12):1141-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03541.x.
This paper is aimed at assessment teams which are not steeped in the culture of educational measurement, but, rather, are composed of professionals whose jobs primarily require them to work as clinicians, but whose interest in medical education has given them responsibilities for assessment. It reiterates the difference between criterion-referenced tests and norm-referenced tests. It proposes that those who design and use any assessment in medicine should be clear about which of these approaches to testing they are using.
This paper does not present any new results, but synthesises what is already known about norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests by reviewing some of the literature. It explains how these two test paradigms lead to different approaches to test design, different measures of reliability and different standard errors of measurement. It shows how these factors may lead to differences in the standards set for some assessments.
Many common medical assessments are assumed to be criterion-referenced but tend to follow norm-referenced practices. Assessment designers should examine the characteristics of each type of assessment to determine which approach is more appropriate and should then apply the correct theories and methods.
本文面向的评估团队对教育测量文化并不熟悉，而是由主要以临床医生为职业的专业人员组成，他们对医学教育的兴趣使他们承担了评估的责任。本文重申了标准参照测试和常模参照测试之间的区别。它提出，那些设计和使用医学中任何评估的人应该清楚他们正在使用哪种测试方法。
本文没有提出任何新的结果，而是通过回顾一些文献，综合了已经知道的关于标准参照和常模参照测试的信息。它解释了这两种测试范式如何导致测试设计、可靠性的不同度量和测量的不同标准误差的不同方法。它展示了这些因素如何导致一些评估标准的差异。
许多常见的医学评估被假定为标准参照，但往往遵循常模参照的做法。评估设计者应该检查每种类型评估的特点，以确定哪种方法更合适，然后应用正确的理论和方法。
