Promoting inclusive Assessment in Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) training
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71957/rd25ws35Abstract
The Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy) requires trainees to develop advanced research skills alongside clinical competencies. To complete the 3-year full-time programme, trainees must successfully produce and defend a doctoral thesis as their final summative assessment. To support this, the Thesis Preparation Assignment (TPA) was previously introduced as a summative Year 1 assessment, aimed at helping trainees critically synthesise literature to justify their planned research. While aligned with programme-level learning outcomes (e.g., critically appraising evidence, planning independent research), the TPA posed significant challenges, including high failure rates and redundancy with subsequent tasks (e.g., preparing a thesis proposal and a research protocol). These issues disproportionately affected trainees with less prior research experience and created barriers to progression, undermining inclusivity. This paper focuses on how the TPA has been transformed into a formative assessment to promote inclusivity in the DClinPsy programme, designed to scaffold trainees to refine their work progressively while building confidence and gaining research independence. Preliminary feedback suggest that this approach reduces barriers to making progress with thesis research while maintaining alignment with programme-level learning outcomes. Importantly, it ensures that formative assessment acts as a meaningful bridge toward successful completion of the summative doctoral thesis.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Dr Buket Kara, Dr Suzanne Hodge (Author)
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