Assessing the Non-Cognitive Domains

Abstract

Good assessment assures attainment and drives learning. In vocational and practical programmes, the important learning outcomes are non-cognitive skills and attitudes - for example, dexterity, situational awareness, professionalism, compassion, or resilience. Unfortunately, these domains are much more difficult to assess. There are three main reasons. First, the constructs themselves are tacit - making them difficult to define. Second, performance is highly variable and situation-specific. Third, significant assessor judgement is required to differentiate between good and poor performance, and this brings subjectivity. The chapter reviews seven existing strategies for addressing these problems: delineating the constructs, using cognitive assessments as a proxy, making the subjective objective, sampling across performances and opinions, using outcome measures as a proxy, using meta-cognition as a proxy, and abandoning the existing measurement paradigm. Given the limitations of these strategies, the author finishes by offering three promising ways forward.