This paper explores the nature and development of competence in speech-language pathology and is based on the development and validation of a competence-based assessment tool to assess the professional performance of Australian speech-language pathology students in the workplace (COMPASS®) . Background is provided on competency frameworks for speech-language pathology in Australia and a systematic research program to validate this assessment tool. Findings relevant to understanding the nature and development of speech-language pathology competence are described.
These findings are discussed in relation to the profession's understanding of speech-language pathology competency and education, professional development, and further research. People who use speech pathology services have a right to expect that these services are provided by competent speech pathologists. This paper explores what has been learned about speech-language pathology competency during the development of a competency-based assessment tool.
This paper reflects on and synthesizes the evidence provided during this process from a different perspective - an examination of the nature of speech-language pathology competence and its development. The first provides background for the reader on the competency framework for speech-language pathology in Australia and the validation process undertaken during the development of COMPASS®. The integrated approach to competencies taken in CBOS for speech-language pathology describes broad areas of professional activity or.
The CBOS framework describes the competencies that speech pathologists should be able to demonstrate at an appropriate pre-degree level (known as “entry level”) across the full scope of speech therapy practice. The CBOS framework is used by the national professional body (Speech . Pathology Australia) to accredit speech-language pathology programs. This has had a significant impact on curriculum design and delivery in speech pathology education (Ferguson, 2006).
Clinical educators and speech-language pathology academics also participated in a structured action research forum held at the Speech Pathology Society of. The second section of this paper will now evaluate this evidence in relation to what it reveals and questions it raises about the development of competence in the practice of speech-language pathology. Interviews and consultations suggested that speech-language pathology practice is more than the simple execution of professional processes.
In summary, the results suggested that Australian speech-language pathologists understand professional competence as arising from the integration of performance across process-oriented professional competencies through generics. These findings suggest that the categories of knowledge, skills, and personal characteristics embedded in competencies and used to develop performance descriptors were relevant to speech-language pathology. Speech-language pathologists in Australia have conceptualized competence as demonstrating an adequate level of performance in undertaking the processes of the profession, e.g. professional competencies such as assessment, analysis and interpretation, planning and intervention (SPAA, 2001).
Evidence generated during the development and validation of COMPASS® identified and confirmed that SLPs also viewed competency as arising from four generic competencies that integrate with and enable the development of competent performance with the seven professional competencies described by the original competency framework (CBOS). ).
Implications of findings
The tool, validated through the development and integration of the evidence described in this paper, was subsequently published by Speech Pathology. Australia as COMPASS®: Competency Assessment in Speech Pathology (McAllister et al., 2006) and is currently used by all Australian and New Zealand speech-language pathology programs as well as programs in Singapore and Hong Kong. Further research is underway regarding the development of ways to collect, manage, and interpret pooled and comparative data for the purposes of ensuring and improving the quality of education in speech-language pathology.
Given the current move towards certification of Australian Speech and Language Pathologists (SPAA, 2008) to practice in specific areas (eg dysphagia, SPAA, 2004) and with specific technologies (eg for endoscopy, SPAA, 2007) it would be useful to assess this framework as a. It is also suggested that this developmental pathway can be accurately described and evaluated within the natural context in which it occurs (ie, the workplace) without diminishing the essential integrative nature of complex knowledge, skills, and relationships. dr. David Curtis, Senior Research Fellow, National Center for Research in Vocational Education, provided us with invaluable advice on the use and interpretation of the Rasch measurement model.
Docking (Eds.), Proceedings of the 26th World Congress of the International Society of Speech Therapy and Phoniatrics. Involve speech pathology students in the design and evaluation of competency-based assessment in the workplace. Hershberger (Eds.), The new rules of measurement: What every psychologist and educator should know (pp. 65-105).
Key: CBOS - Competency-Based Professional Standards for Speech-Language Pathologists - Entry Level (Revised) (SPAA, 2001); GC – Generic Competence (see COMPASS®; McAllister et al., 2006). A variant of the Rasch model used to analyze the validity of assessments using rating scales that have the same number of response options (as in the COMPASS® assessment). Personal measures associated with Infit mean squares above 2.0 are more likely to be based on abnormally variable grades and may not be accurate measures of student performance.
Evidence that an assessment measures one characteristic and not several at the same time, in this case the speech therapy competency.
