Student Evaluation Resources
Fieldwork Performance Evaluation Tools
Self-Assessment Tool for Fieldwork Educator Competency
This voluntary self-assessment tool is designed to provide structure for fieldwork educators to assess their own competency and identify areas for improvement of skills. Use of this assessment tool is intended to be a foundation for professional growth and specific improvement strategies with measurable outcomes.
Teaching Styles
Anthony F. Grasha, a professor of psychology, identified five teaching styles through qualities observed across faculty of a university. These five teaching styles are expert, formal authority, the personal model, facilitator, and delegator. When deciding to supervise a student, it is important to match the needs of the student, along with your preferred teaching methods. Below is a description of each of the teaching styles. It is important to remember there are pros and cons to each of these and you can decide how and when to demonstrate different styles for different scenarios.
The Expert focuses on the possession of knowledge and expertise that students need. Typical practices in this style include challenging students to enhance their competence and sharing information so that they are well prepared.
The Formal Authority demonstrates some status over students due to their knowledge and role. Typical traits include being concerned with positive and negative feedback, establishing goals, expectations, and rules for students, and are concerned with the “standard” way to do things.
The Personal Model believes in teaching by example and demonstrates ways to think and behave. A typical trait includes showing students how to do things and encouraging their students to match their approach.
The Facilitator emphasizes mentor and student interactions. The educator will ask questions, explore options, suggest alternatives, and encourage students. This style highlights the student’s independence.
The Delegator focuses on the student’s autonomy. Educators are available as a resource upon the student’s request.
Grasha, A. F. (1994). A matter of style: The teacher as expert, formal authority, personal model, facilitator, and delegator. College Teaching, 42(4), 142-149. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27558675
Struggling Students
Many students may experience some form of difficulty during their fieldwork rotation. If the fieldwork educator begins to doubt the student’s performance, early intervention is key to prevent failing the fieldwork student. Below is a summary of student performance and behaviors to watch, as well as how to intervene to help the student to success.
If a fieldwork educator has determined your fieldwork student is experiencing some difficulty during their rotation, the first step is to evaluate their performance and identify areas of concern. This can be completed through the use of the site’s weekly schedule, site-specific learning objectives, and the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Fieldwork Performance Evaluation (FWPE) (Trivinia & Johnson, 2019).
Common reasons that fieldwork educators have failed students include clearly meeting the criteria to fail, lack of knowledge of content, poor clinical skills, patient safety concerns, attitude, poor time management, and work ethic (Cardell et al., 2017). An additional large reason for students failing fieldwork is due to insufficient communication skills, especially when explaining practice models or clinical reasoning (Nicola-Richmond et al., 2017).
Early identification of issues and a strong student-supervision relationship are important when facilitating a fieldwork placement (Nicola-Richmond et al., 2017).In order to equip fieldwork educators with the tools necessary to further assist the student, the AFWC may recommend a learning contract, which is an objective, methodological, measurable, collaborative, student-centered, and individualized plan for the student to be successful in their fieldwork experience (Triviania & Johnson, 2019).
To summarize, the steps to take when you notice difficulties in the student’s performance are as follows:
- Recognize the problem
- Collect and evaluate evidence
- Provide feedback
- Contact with AFWC
- Establish a learning contract
- Schedule a meeting
- Review the goals
Cardell, B., Koski, J., Wahl, J., Rock, W, & Kirby, A. (2017). Underperforming students: Factors and decision-making in occupational therapy programs. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.26681/jote.2017.010301
Nicola-Richmond, K., Butterworth, B., & Hitch, D. (2017). What factors contribute to failure of fieldwork placement? Perspectives of supervisors and university fieldwork educators. World Federation of Occupational Therapists Bulletin, 73(2), 117-124.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14473828.2016.1149981 Trivinia, B. A. & Johnson, C. R. (2019). Blueprint for success: Measurable learning contracts for level II fieldwork students at risk for failing. OT Practice, 24(7), 24-27. https://www.aota.org/publications/ot-practice/ot-practice-issues/2019/fieldwork-learning-contracts
Helpful Articles
- Bolding, D. J., Dudley, T., Adhlmeier, A., Bland, L., Castro, A., & Covarrubias, A. (2020). Prevalence and types of incivility in occupational therapy fieldwork. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.26681/jote.2020.040111
- Grenier, M. L. (2015). Facilitators and barriers to learning in occupational therapy fieldwork education: Student perspectives. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 69(2). https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2015.015180
- Orsini, C., Rodrigues, V., Tricio, J., & Rosel, M. (2022). Common models and approaches for the clinical educator to plan effective feedback encounters. Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions, 19(35). https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2022.19.35
- Rodger, S., Thomas, Y., Greber, C., Broadbridge, J., Edwards, A., Newtown, J., & Lyons, M. (2014). Attributes of excellence in practice educators: The perspectives of Australian occupational therapy students. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 6(3), 159-167. https://doi.org/10.1111/1440-1630.12096
