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Assessment Items - Glossary |
Assessment
Following is a list of assessment items which may assist you in your course design. The list is not comprehensive, but was built from items which are explicitly linked to professional applications as well as more traditional assessment forms.
Strengths: provides a context for the development of independent thinking, reflection and planning; encourages students to take responsibility for their own professional development; has clear relevance to the student's professional context; provides opportunities for collaboration between students, or between students and their professional mentors.
Limitations: requires clear guidelines in order for students to feel confident enough to make decisions independently; requires high levels of support in the early stages; difficult to assess over a short period.
Strengths: Students develop a useful resource for their future work; encourages wide reading around a topic. Enables students to gain better knowledge of the range of resources relevant to their professional area.
Limitations: Can be time-consuming. Can direct students’ energies away from more creative or critical activities.
Strengths: Students’ acknowledgement of the origins of their own values and beliefs often allows them to question themselves and their beliefs frankly and openly.
Limitations: Difficult to evaluate; may be problems with confidentiality; may result in superficial writing designed to please the lecturer.
Strengths: Students develop a socially critical perspective.
Limitations: Students may feel resentful at being asked to critique their experiences.
Strengths: Students develop reflective techniques that will be used elsewhere in the course and that will be valuable for their career.
Limitations: May be difficult for the lecturer to provide appropriately sensitive and productive feedback.
Strengths: Useful approach to assessing students’ capacity for ethical decision making within relevant contexts.
Limitations: Time consuming to research and write case studies that allow enough flexibility (without losing the ‘realism’ factor) for examiners to set questions that result in students’ demonstrations of their expertise in the required areas.
Strengths: detailed assessment criteria sheets help students to focus on the techniques that assist effective oral communication;
in cases where peer assessment of class participation is used in addition to tutor assessment, students can benefit from the views of a wide range of assessors.
Limitations: can be stressful for students; problems with reliability can be reduced through the use of more than one assessor (ie a team of tutors or peer assessors) as in the poster examples for Murdoch and JCU.
Strengths: provides a ‘realistic’ but protected situation for students to gain valuable experience in client interviewing techniques and to build necessary skills.
Limitations: resource intensive: usually requires a purpose built room with in-built video and audio-recording facilities; requires intensive training for ‘actors’ and for assessors; detailed preparation of the case studies to ensure that key elements are included in each; requires a lot of time to conduct and assess the interviews individually.
Strengths: a more reliable form of practical examination than workplace assessment which is often complicated by the personal relationship between the student and the clinical supervisor and by the fact that variations between different workplace situations make comparisons of students difficult.
Limitations: ‘laboratories’ or ‘workstations’ have to be established; requires detailed organisation and administration to ensure that all students cycle through the tasks in the required time; requires training of ‘actors’ and assessors.
Strengths: students are able to present material to internet audiences for an open range of responses; they gain understanding of the internet as a communication tool; it can provide a resource for future students.
Limitations: can be difficult to scaffold for general student audiences; can be a potential technical "nightmare".
Strengths: draws on the student’s own experience of professional decision making; encourages the development of reflective and critical practices.
Limitations: depth of analysis often depends on the type of incident chosen; unwary students choose incidents that do not allow them to demonstrate their reflective and critical abilities to best effect.
Strengths: relevance to professional issues and concerns results in a high level of interest on the part of students; develops research techniques, the construction of an argument, the use of evidence in support of a case.
Limitations: requires careful preparation of the task and detailed explanation of the criteria otherwise the critique is too difficult for most students.
Strengths: databases provide a means by which student research can be retained for teaching purposes and added to by students in later years; students acquire valuable skills such as editing, time management, presentation techniques and research.
Limitations: technical assistance is necessary (and costly) although students are becoming more familiar with processes such as scanning and the use of multimedia technology.
Strengths: enables students to apply sociological concepts to a real life situation; when used as part of a larger study such as an ethnography, discourse analysis provides a more critical basis for understanding research results.
Limitations: requires theoretical understanding of the concept of 'discourse' and some preparation in processes of analysis.
Strengths: gives experience in academic writing style and in structuring written arguments; helps students understand how to adopt a reasoned position; encourages a broader perspective.
Limitations: can appear overly theoretical for students studying in a professional context.
Strengths: provides opportunities for students to engage in academic writing; extends students’ understandings of the assumptions informing sociological research; develops critical analysis.
Limitations: can appear to students to be unrelated to practical professional issues.
Strengths: relevance to professional issues and the experiential element result in a high level of interest; develops research techniques which students can use later in their professional setting; gives students opportunities to synthesise their understanding of theoretical issues in relation to a 'real' site.
Limitations: obtaining approval from site managers can be time-consuming; requires time for students to visit and conduct research / hold interviews; sites can be reluctant to allow research into sensitive areas; a modest or uncontroversial topic is more likely to be approved than something which might show the site in a negative light.
Strengths: as above, with the added benefits of collaboration such as the possibility of delegating tasks and opportunities to access a wider range of ideas and approaches to the task.
Limitations: as above, with the additional problems associated with collaborative work, such as arranging meeting times and ensuring equal participation.
Strengths: cost effective because it is quick to mark and relatively easy to arrange through central university services; satisfies institutional requirements that a proportion of assessment be supervised; is generally thought to have high reliability as a measure of student performance.
Limitations: stressful for students; equity issues arise around attendance, preparation time and performance under stress; disruptions such as bomb scares differentially affect student performance.
Strengths: Strengths and limitations are as outlined for Examination (final), but potentially less stressful since students still have time to improve their marks before a final examination. Also gives students a clear picture of their strengths and weaknesses.
Limitations: Possibility that students will focus exclusively on preparing for the exam, at the expense of other forms of learning. Tendency to encourage surface or strategic learning rather than a deeper engagement.
Strengths: students are readily able to make connections between the readings and unit content and workplace and professional issues; the task generates a high level of interest; the interviewee contributes to the learning process.
Limitations: students need support to frame appropriate questions; there can be problems with technical equipment; access to the interviewee may be limited.
Strengths: closely related to professional needs; high student interest; develops a broad range of skills and understandings particularly when written tasks are combined with an interview.
Limitations: job advertisements tend to be highly specific and the criteria may be narrowly defined.
Strengths: students learn to manage 'personal' and 'public' writing to locate their apparently personal experiences in terms of social and cultural contexts.
Limitations: some students experience difficulty in analysing their experiences in sociological terms; journal material needs to be sensitively handled by tutors; some experiences are too private or personal for public scrutiny yet the student may need to explore these experiences in order to develop professionally.
Strengths: improves students' understanding of relationships among personal, professional and sociological issues; develops reflective practices necessary for professional work; helps teaching staff to better understand their students.
Limitations: difficult to grade and many educators argue that it is undesirable to grade reflective journals; time-consuming to read and provide the level of feedback required on each journal; relies on confessional techniques that some students and teaching staff find difficult to manage or dismiss as irrelevant to academic work.
Strengths: enables students to view their experiences in the light of related research; encourages students to develop a more critical understanding of their experiences in relation to theoretical material; can be clearly directed making assessment easier.
Limitations: as for journals, above.
Strengths: allows initial engagement with the topic; enables student to focus more clearly on the topic.
Limitations: access to resources is important; may be seen by students in a professional course as too academic.
Strengths: reduces the amount of revision required by teaching staff due to poor student preparation for practical sessions; maximises the benefits students receive from practical exercises by improving their preparation and organisation and focusing attention on important elements of theory and practice.
Limitations: when run as a series of tests marking can be time-consuming although it has the added benefit for students of providing a form of continuous assessment.
Strengths: provides a ‘realistic’ but protected situation for students to gain valuable experience in patient interviewing techniques and to build necessary skills.
Limitations: resource intensive: usually requires a purpose built room with in-built video and audio-recording facilities; requires intensive training for ‘actors’ and for assessors; detailed preparation of the case studies to ensure that key elements are included in each; requires a lot of time to conduct and assess the interviews individually.
Strengths: high student interest and participation; a range of tools to assess; adaptable to each individual’s circumstance.
Limitations: criteria may be less explicit, value judgements on items in the portfolio can work against students; may be exclusionary for some students.
Strengths: can be assessed ‘on the spot’ by peers and teaching staff; develops a wide range of skills; high student interest and participation; versatile assessment tool when combined with group work and oral presentation.
Limitations: students may focus on visual impact at the expense of content; need to restrict resources to avoid situations where students produce expensive posters.
Strengths: allows a huge range of material to be condensed and represented in a limited format. Suitable for individual or collaborative work.
Limitations: students may focus on visual impact at the expense of content; need to restrict resources to avoid situations where students produce expensive posters.
Strengths: develops a broad range of skills and assists in meeting professional needs since almost all professions require members to make presentations
Limitations: requires intensive preparation, organisation and administration by teaching staff.
Strengths: strengths and weaknesses can be clearly identified by staff and students; transparency of the assessment process helps students to understand how judgements are made.
Limitations: time-consuming for staff to record and maintain individual records; tutors’ comments need to be related to the assessment criteria otherwise they are open to challenge by students.
Strengths: Strong development of reflective pedagogy; encourages students to clarify a range of relevant issues and to weight the importance of each.
Limitations: the highly negotiated quality of the work may encourage students to "bite off more than they can chew".
Strengths: Engages students in a highly complex and inter-related range of processes often closely linked to professional activities.
Limitations: Can be very expensive, requires strong institutional and sometimes even industry support. Projects can blow out of proportion and supervisors and tutors must be ready to assist students with maintaining a manageable project; can demand a range of skills unfamiliar to the teaching and supervisory team.
Strengths: assists students to understand the ‘real world’ application of sociological theory; provides opportunities for students to develop specific writing skills required by the profession; links the academic concerns of the unit with professional concerns for accountability.
Limitations: teaching staff may not be well-prepared to teach writing skills.
Strengths: consolidates research skills; introduces students to topical issues confronting the profession; links academic work with professional concerns.
Limitations: assessment and preparation is time-consuming because the assessor has to be familiar with the broad range of resources that the students will use.
Strengths: high level of student engagement and interest; clear connections between academic concerns of the unit and workplace demands; assists students to develop workplace competencies.
Limitations: ’real space’ simulations are expensive to construct and maintain; tasks are time-consuming for staff to supervise and administer.
Strengths: develops report writing skills; assists students develops report writing skills; assists students to understand professional processes; helps students to clarify the role of theory in decision-making processes.
Limitations: the student is restricted by only having a limited amount of material and information available; in ‘reality’ they would have access to a wide range of information or they would be able to research the client’s background or the context of the situation more fully.
Strengths: allows students to apply sociological concepts to allows students to apply sociological concepts to a professional context; provides experience in using a research tool which is valuable for future action research.
Limitations: essential to be sensitive about choice of site, intrusiveness of mapping activity, negotiation with people involved, since results are potentially threatening for those surveyed; some prior training in methods is advisable.
Strengths: allows students to think creatively in devising the tutorial process; avoids the scenario whereby the tutorial simply becomes a reading of a paper; allows students to utilise a wider range of skills and intelligences.
Limitations: since the focus is on group interaction, peer support and willingness to participate will impact significantly on the tutorial's success; requires students to do a considerable amount of planning.
Strengths: high level of student interest and involvement; interactive activities provide opportunities for students to receive immediate feedback on their presentation; develops oral, performance and verbal skills; relates to needs of most professions.
Limitations: difficult to assess unless there are clear criteria and students have been well prepared to meet these criteria; difficult to regulate the quality of students' learning experiences since these are student-directed sessions.
Strengths: encourages the reflective process; enables tutor to give feedback in the light of students' own perceptions; applicable to many professional contexts.
Limitations: student needs guidance on what kinds of issues to discuss if the assignment is to be valuable.
Strengths: high level of engagement possible; the experiential element can generate deeper learning than other means of presenting information.
Limitations: as for simulations; can be threatening if students are not well prepared; de-briefing essential.
Action research project
Description: An action research project is an opportunity for students to investigate and reflect on specific aspects of their own professional practice, and to decide upon and practise relevant courses of action in the light of this research. Action research is experiential in nature. It places the individual at the centre of the process of decision making about changing practices, and relies on the individual practitioner to decide what to research, how to research it, and how to implement new practices in the light of the research. Annotated bibliographies
Description: Students are asked to compile a bibliography relating to a particular topic or professional issue, and annotate each entry with a brief abstract of the contents. May be particularly useful as a preparation for a more complex task, eg critical essay, project, research assignment. Autobiography
Description: Students are asked to write a paper which describes specific incidents from their own life which were significant in forming and confirming their values and sense of identity. They are asked to develop this into a broader discussion of what they consider to be their place in the community and finally to consider in what ways their particular collection of characteristics, values and opinions are likely to be an advantage or a disadvantage in their career. Critical autobiography
Description: This is related to an autobiography, but students link autobiographical experiences to larger social issues thus moving beyond an analysis that locates the problem solely within the individual. Reflective autobiography
Description: The lecturer provides feedback on the autobiography and students reflect on this and rework the autobiography in light of the lecturer’s comments. Case study examination
Description: Students are provided with case description(s) relevant to their future career at least a week before the examination. At the examination they are asked questions that encourage them to think as widely as possible about the issues raised. For example, students may be asked to identify each of the ethical issues that the case study raises; devise alternative strategies for addressing the situation and justify (in terms of their personal values and legal, professional or community obligations) the choice of strategy they personally would follow. Class participation
Description: Assessing class participation encourages the development of oral communication skills necessary in most professional contexts. Since class participation requires interaction, it is necessary to employ interactive teaching methods in order to facilitate the development of these skills. Client interviews
Description: Designed to develop abilities associated with communication, gathering evidence, assessing information, applying ethical principles. Role plays are usually developed for client interview situations. The role plays need to cover the required range of situations and include a diverse range of persons. Senior students (third or fourth years) can be used as ‘trained actors’ for interview purposes. Interviews can last for up to an hour and are usually videotaped for assessment purposes. Clinical performance
Description: Unlike assessment of competence carried out in the workplace, clinical performance uses simulation to ensure that all students are assessed on the same task in the same context. Checklists are used by assessors. Students perform their tasks with ‘actors’ in purpose-built workstations or ‘laboratories’. Creation of web pages
Description: Students are asked to develop a web page based on their research. The work can be either collaborative or individual. the students can be involved in using html or not, and in designing the page or using proforma.. Critical incident analysis
Description: Students select a ‘critical incident’ that they have observed or participated in during workplace (professional) experience. The student provides a detailed account of the incident and then reflects on the decisions made by the professional involved in the incident. The student then critically evaluates the decision. Critique
Description: Critique can take many forms and may involve students in field trips, written work, case studies and so on. Often students are presented with a ‘scenario’. The best are drawn from actual professional life. They then research and critique the ‘scenario’. It may be video footage of a series of incidents in a classroom or other professional setting; a series of newspaper reports about an event or issue, or a web site. Database
Description: Students research a topic such as historical changes in school architecture or new ways to teach science. They present their research which could include slides, illustrations, video clips, their own commentaries using hypertext in a specified format, fully referenced and ready for inclusion in a CDROM database. The database may then be used to support further learning through seminar presentations, talks to members of the community or to professional organisations using the database for visual display. Discourse analysis of policy documents or programmes
Description: Students choose a policy document or programme from a site which they are studying, which is related to a particular research topic (eg for an ethnography), and undertake a discourse analysis of the document. This task allows students to critically analyse the thinking behind particular practices in a school or other professional site. Essay (critical)
Description: Students research several arguments surrounding an issue, and write an essay which explores two contrasting arguments relating to the issue. Students practise skills in arguing, using supporting evidence, and writing in a balanced, critical manner. A critical essay might follow on from the writing of a critical review (see below). Essay (critical review)
Description: Students are asked to critically review a set reading or to select from a range of suggested readings. The assignment assists students to develop their understanding of key sociological concepts and theories and to develop techniques for assessing the assumptions, methods and findings of selected readings within the research literature. Ethnography of professional site (individual)
Description: Students choose a specific site (eg a secondary school) and conduct an ethnographic study of the site. This is a small-scale, clearly focused project in which a specific topic is researched, such as school dress code or social justice policy. The research consists of interviews with a range of interested parties (students, teachers, parents) on the chosen topic, followed by discourse analysis of the relevant policy documents and a social mapping exercise. At Murdoch this research is reported both in the form of an individual paper and via a presentation to an audience of colleagues, fellow students, tutors, etc. Ethnography of professional site (group)
Description: As above, but students work collaboratively in small groups to plan, conduct and report their research. A group assignment allows access to a wider range of perspectives. At Murdoch the research is reported both in an individual paper and as a group presentation to fellow students and tutors. Examination (final)
Description: Mid-term and end-of-semester examinations are common forms of assessment. Students are presented with a timed written exercise or they may be provided with a take-home paper to work on overnight. Alternatively students may be provided with questions a day in advance and then attend a formal, supervised examination to answer the questions they have prepared. Examinations should be designed to meet the stated outcomes of the unit. However, it is often difficult to anticipate in advance how students will respond to particular questions. This can result in unexpected outcomes. Examination (mid-term)
Description: As above, but used formatively to provide students with feedback on their work so far. Interview
Description: Students are asked to interview a practising professional. The person may be the student’s supervisor in a professional setting. Students are provided with information about interviewing techniques and guidelines for posing questions. Students usually negotiate a topic with the interviewee, or the student and interviewee select a topic from the unit. When combined with other elements of assessment interviews can assist students to develop analytical skills, communication and questioning techniques, critical thinking, and professionally oriented writing and research skills. Job application
Description: Students prepare a job application for an advertised position in their profession. They present a written assessment of their knowledge, skills and experience against the selection criteria. When a ‘real’ advertisement is not available a fictitious one can be produced by the teaching team. The written application can be combined with an interview. The job application assists students to develop interpretation and negotiation skills and writing skills. Students also provide evidence of their knowledge of the subject matter and of professional requirements. Journal
Description: Journals are designed to assist the learning process and can be 'reflective' and 'critical'.
Reflective and critical journals provide students with the opportunity to report their experiences, to analyse the experiences in a sociological sense and to reflect on those experiences in terms of their reading for the unit and the feedback received from their tutors by way of comments on their journals.
Learning journal (reflective)
Description: The student writes a journal as a particular event is taking place. The event may be a professional placement or participation in a group or individual assessment task. Depth of reflection is indicated by the willingness of the student to recognize and explore their own issues, to question the status quo and to evaluate the impact of their own beliefs, attitudes and values on their work as professionals. Detailed comments are provided for students on their journal entries. The comments help students to identify personal issues that may impact on their professional lives and alert students to assumptions that they may be making about the cultural and social contexts of their potential clients. Vigorous debates continue about the desirability or otherwise of assigning a grade to reflective journals. Learning journal (critical)
Description: Students combine the personal element of a journal with a critique based on relevant readings. The focus is on analysing the events and experiences reported, in the light of students' reading for the unit. Literature review
Description: A preliminary stage in a research assignment, in which students search for and write a review of the literature relevant to their study. In a professional course, a literature review could form part of an action learning project, or be an initial stage in developing a negotiated project. Mini-tests
Description: Students are presented with short written tests related to practical exercises usually during a normal class session. About five questions are designed to occupy about ten minutes of writing time. The questions target specific information relating to both the theoretical and practical aspects of, for instance, laboratory work. Patient interview
Description: Designed to develop abilities associated with communication, gathering evidence, assessing information, applying ethical principles and performing patient needs analysis. Role plays are often developed for patient interview situations. The role plays need to cover the required range of situations and include a diverse range of persons. Senior students (third or fourth years) can be used as ‘trained actors’ for interview purposes. Interviews can last for up to an hour and are usually videotaped for assessment purposes. Portfolio of professional experience
Description: Portfolios signal to students that a range of skills and experiences are valued. They provide an opportunity for students to show different work experiences they have been involved in and include references, extra curricular activities such as learning the saxaphone or a community service. These indicate a more rounded personality is sought after and not just a single minded approach. Poster presentation
Description: Poster presentations assist students to research and present technical information in accessible and stimulating ways. Students are able to make visual or graphic connections between theoretical and practical aspects of the unit.
They provide an opportunity for students to develop visually interesting representations of specific topics or issues and to develop skills in design and layout. Posters can be produced by groups or by individuals and can be accompanied by verbal commentary.
Poster research exercise
Description: As above, but incorporates and visually respresents research questions, methodologies, findings and analyses. (See Assessment Items "Project Design and Proposal" and "Project Implementation".) Presentation
Description: Presentations usually take the form of oral and visual representations of a topic or issue designed to provide information for an audience. Presentations can be made by individuals or by groups. Brevity, clarity and impact are key aspects of a successful presentation. Detailed assessment criteria should be provided for students well in advance of the exercise. Authenticity can be increased when the audience for the presentations includes practising professionals. Profile
Description: Assessment profiles provide a more detailed picture of a student’s achievements than an aggregated mark converted to an overall grade. Profiles take many forms and they may include samples of students’ work. A student profile may include a mark and comments by an assessor for each assessment item for a particular unit. Generally, the tutor keeps a folder for each student and records comments and marks as the semester progresses. He or she may also collect samples of the student’s work. At the end of the semester the tutor has a more complete picture of the students’ capabilities than is reflected by simply recording a mark for each item. The data can be used for formative and for summative assessment purposes. Project design and proposal
Description: Students are asked to design a project they either will or will not carry out. Allows students to tackle problems much greater than the institutional context can accommodate. The assessment can take a range of forms and is an excellent way to explore student understandings of the theoretical, methodological, financial and ethical parameters of the particular project. The assessment can be "one-stop" or multi-staged depending on the desired outcomes related to the assessment. Works well for both individual or collaborative contexts. Project implementation
Description: Students follow through with the above project design and proposal. They are responsible for the theoretical, methodological, research, analysis, ethics constaints and costings of the project, from beginning to end. The work will usually have a variety of assessment components including design proposals, data representations, ongoing project reports, a final paper, project presentations and a final report. The work is ideally suited to more advanced students and to collaborative efforts. Project report
Description: Report writing is a commonly required skill in many professions. Since each profession has its own requirements, it is necessary for teaching staff to explicitly teach the report genre within the contexts of specific workplaces. Students may report on a project that they have produced or they may be presented with a fictitious project and asked to report on it in specific ways. Research assignment
Description: Library-based research is a common academic activity but it can be designed to meet professional needs. Topics relating to professional issues are provided for students, or they negotiate their own topic with their tutor. The student then researches primary and secondary sources relevant to the topic with the assistance of material and guidelines provided through the unit. It is important to ensure that the assignment is designed in such a way that library resources will not be placed under impossible pressure. This can be managed by placing material in ‘Closed Reserve’ or by limiting the number of students who select each topic. Library research works well when combined with other elements of assessment such as an interview. In the JCU example students interviewed their supervising teacher on a specific topic. Prior to the interview they researched the topic and wrote a literature review as part of their report on the interview. Simulations
Description: These may be computer- generated or ‘real’, in the sense that a reproduction of a work area is constructed (classroom; office; hospital ward; court room) and the students perform some type of workplace task under ‘pretend’ conditions. Computer generated simulations deserve to be better developed and more popular than they are at present. Although widely used in some medical schools and in training airline pilots to fly, for instance, they deserve wider application in law, social work and education. Social history report
Description: Students are provided with data regarding a particular client (problem, situation, background, family network) or a particular situation. For instance, a school may have a suspension rate that is twice that of neighbouring schools. No more than one page of data is required for this exercise. The data is unsorted and students need to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant data, identify any gaps in the data, note patterns that emerge, and select the most important information. In writing the report the student is required to apply theoretical understandings to the problem and to explain the behaviour or the situation in sociological terms. Social mapping
Description: Used to collect and record data for various forms of social research such as ethnographies, or for action research. Social mapping involves researching and recording aspects of social interactions in a specific site (eg school playground, classroom, etc). For example, mapping activities which record aspects of classroom talk such as who speaks to whom and what kind of talk is happening in each interchange can reveal the hidden biases of a teacher in favour of a particular social group in the classroom. Tutorial (interactive presentation)
Description: As above, except students are required to go beyond simply presenting what they understand of a topic and devise a tutorial which is wholly interactive. Ideally the tutorial process should be in some way appropriate to the topic, so that tutorial members learn experientially. Tutorial (presentation)
Description: Tutorial presentations generally combine written and oral components of assessment. Students are asked to prepare a paper on a reading or a topic and then speak to that paper during the tutorial. Presentations can be performed by individuals or groups. Common tutorial presentations include a paper or poster presentation; activities such as teaching or demonstrating; or performances such as music, dance or sports skills. Tutorial (reflective paper)
Description: Students write a paper in which they reflect on what happened in their tutorial presentation, focusing on the tutorial's strengths and weaknesses, whether the desired outcomes were achieved, and how they might modify the tutorial were they to present it again. Tutorial (simulations)
Description: See 'simulations' above. Tutorial simulations involve the recreation of a particular work place or work-related event in which students are required to participate as if in real life. They might be set up in order to allow students to practise specific work-related skills, or problem solving, or in order to generate a more focused discussion than would be possible without the experiential element.