Synopsis
Increasingly, the products of medical education are being studied by systematic evaluation procedures which include: empirical determination of essential components of professional competence, employment of simulation technique to supplement more conventional methods of assessment, application of pre-established standards, and utilization of numerous feedback mechanisms to assure fuller exploitation of evaluation data. Such data are utilized not only to assess individual achievement of critical performance requirements, but also to identify differential rates and patterns of progress toward these goals, to determine the relation between these patterns and important independent variables in the learning situation, to guide curricular development, and to provide evidence of value in re-defining the goals themselves. It seems clear that this approach can be useful in the evaluation of professional education.