Undergraduate Medical Spanish: The Role of Assessment in Teaching and Learning

Abstract

As courses and programs in medical Spanish continue to grow at higher education institutions across the United States, the need for research on the teaching and learning of medical Spanish as a field continues to expand. Acknowledging the importance of more evidence-based research, the current study’s purpose is to examine the role of assessment in undergraduate medical Spanish courses. To accomplish this goal, instructors of medical Spanish across the United States were interviewed individually or in focus groups. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded following line-by-line coding. Using constructivist grounded theory methodology, the researchers grouped the resulting codes into categories into categories, and themes were created. Themes that emerged from the data related to the use of rubrics, challenges in assessment, community engagement, diverse language proficiency, and cultural competency. Participants indicate the need for standardized rubrics and assessments that go beyond traditional grammar and vocabulary components and even medical terminology, which expresses the need to include categories on pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and intercultural skills. The results of this study show that medical Spanish assessment at the undergraduate level needs more evidence-based research and collaboration in order to develop standardized evaluation tools to assess students’ linguistic and cultural skills. Implications regarding assessment in undergraduate medical Spanish courses are discussed below.

DOI