Ronald Harden¹
Jeni Harden²
1 Medical Teacher
2 University of Edinburgh Medical School 

There is a need for a greater level of education literacy at all levels in a medical school, with a better understanding of the important role students can play as assessors (Harden & Harden 2024). 

This presentation illustrates how students can make a valuable contribution to assessment beyond that which can be offered by the teacher. This may seem as an inherent contradiction with regard to students as objects of assessment and students engaged with assessment policy and practice. 

Students’ involvement in assessment can enhance the effectiveness and quality of the education programme. They have a unique role to play particularly in two areas – peer assessment and self assessment. 

Peer assessment provides a valid assessment of students’ professionalism and contribution to group work, and serves as a means of encouraging teamwork and collaborative skills. As a student-centred approach it gives students an insight into the curriculum and expected learning outcomes. How the associated challenges can be overcome will be described. 

A student’s role in assessing their own competence is important, with critical self-appraisal a requirement of a medical professional. If we graduate students from our school still dependent on others to tell them when they are adequate, good or excellent, then we have missed the whole point of what education is about. Self-assessment is not an innate skill – it is a habit that needs to be acquired by students. It should be recognized as a cyclical process in which self- assessment judgements are gradually refined. Student self-assessment is linked to the move to “assessment for learning”. 

The question is no longer whether students should be engaged with assessment but how students can have a voice in relation to assessment policy and decisions taken through the lens of a student perspective. 

Harden J & Harden R M (2024) The Changing Role of Medical Students. Elsevier.