Summary
This articles is concerned with a multifaceted assessment method for the appraisal of students enrolled at Ball State Universities Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology in Indiana. Segrist & Schoonaert state that the benefits for such assessments are experienced on the level of the individual student, department, institution and in the community. The authors report on a five tiered assessment program including the components: self-assessment at the start, half-way and end points of their assistantship; peer assessment; partner assessment; super-visor observation; and portfolio development. The method assesses the following 12 competencies of students –
Advocacy
Analytical and critical thinking
Assessment/evaluation
Communication
Cultural competencies
Financial planning
Leadership and management
Partnership and teamwork
Program planning and development
Public policy knowledge
System thinking
The authors detail the background information on the institution for wellness and gerontology and the graduate assistantship program design in the introductory sections. They then go on to describe the five tiered assessment headings and how they apply to gerontology assessment.
Self-assessment
Each student is required to document their experiences on a monthly basis taking into consideration what they did, when they did it, and what learning experiences they gained from. The reporting document also contains space to comment on (a) what impact they made on receiving individuals, and (b) how well their team is working.
Peer assessment
Peer assessment occurs once a year allowing students the opportunity to evaluate their fellow student peers. This is done on the basis of the Likert scale (1 = critically deficient & 4 = exemplary).
Partner assessment
Partner professionals and agencies that provide the student assistantships are asked upon to respond to a survey based around their experiences with the student. The eight question survey again utilises the Likert scale.
Supervisor Observation
The supervisor observation follows the previously mentioned processes. It looks closes at communication, management, organizational culture, and gerontological.
Portfolio Development
The portfolio comprises of student experiences and reflections on their work. Some students collect their experiences and success on a website, others have collected all relevant documents and presented them together to their supervisors.
Table 1. details the definition of the 12 competencies mentioned above. Here, Systems Thinking is defined as ‘Ability to investigate and analyse physical, social, emotional, intellectual, environmental, spiritual, economic, and political factors that influence health; apply systems approaches and multiple strategies at multiple levels.’
Cultural competencies are described as ‘Identification of the role of cultural, social, and behavioural factors in determining delivery of wellness services; adaptation of approaches to problems taking cultural differences into account; use of appropriate methods for interacting effectively, sensitively, and professionally with persons from diverse cultural, socioeconomic, educational, racial, ethnic, and professional backgrounds, and with persons
of all ages and lifestyle preferences.’
Finally, Segrist & Schoonaert describe the benefits this program and assessment have to assistants, clients and the institute. The appendix of this publication contains the various evaluation forms described above.
Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This article is relevant to complex systems knowledge from the community aspect. The basis of the report is an appraisal method of student performance in gerontology. The gerontology program enables students to experience structured opportunities for developing knowledge in the field of study, as well as providing a valuable service to the receiving community through this link with a higher education institution. The assessment of student performance is integral to the enhancement of future operations and may utilised for a different study topic.
The paper offers a definition of systems thinking as detailed above. The paper also offers a definition of cultural competencies which may useful for the community topic.
