ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of current issues in educational assessment as a guide to general practitioners who teach or assess learners. Assessment could be defined as the measurement of achievement of progress towards meeting defined educational objectives. Formative assessment is that which provides feedback to learners in order to guide progress. Summative assessment is that which indicates that a particular level of competence has been achieved at the end of either part, or all, of the educational programme. Programme evaluation is assessment that indicates how well the course is meeting educational objectives. Assessment occurs in all health professional courses and comes in many forms. The chapter describes that the latter, as GP supervisors will not often get involved in writing and scoring written tests. It presents an overview of current issues in assessment in medical education. Clinical assessment in general practices has the advantage of being workplace based and performance oriented.
