English in dentistry: challenges in assessment of writing

Abstract

Critical to the success of any outcome-based learning module is the alignment between assessment methods and learning objectives, usually realised through appropriate assessment rubrics. Fourth-year dentistry students at HKU are required to conduct a Community Health Project to demonstrate their all-round ability, bringing together their professional knowledge and their investigative, interpretative, organizational, language and teamwork skills to produce research reports. Detailed assessment rubrics were developed collaboratively by the Centre for Applied English Studies and the Faculty of Dentistry in the pilot of an English in the Discipline (ED) course, which offered parallel language support to students during the research process. This paper discusses the procedure we took to develop, revise and try out the rubrics, which yielded a multi-category description of what constitutes quality work from the language and discipline perspectives. While teachers in general agree that these rubrics facilitate provision of useful feedback to students and allow for consistency of marking final written reports, beyond the trial stage, the criteria were used by only the language teachers. It remains to be explored whether the assessment criteria could serve further purposes in co-assessment, a challenge to be jointly achieved by the Centre's and the Faculty' teachers on the ED course.