The invention of the Objective Structured Clinical
Examination (OSCE) represented a radical break with
forms of examination traditionally used to assess the
competence of medical students. Unlike written or
bed-side exams, an OSCE required students to perform
with a series of actors in fixed-interval simulated
scenarios. The technique spread rapidly and today
OSCEs are used around the globe to assess health
professionals. This Foucauldian socio-history
explores how discourses of performance, psychometrics
and production have legitimized the widespread
adoption of OSCEs. Probing an archive of over 600
published articles, interviews with 25 key informants
in Europe and America and visits to key universities
and testing organizations, the author documents how
these discourses have led to substantial changes in
the way competence is understood. This book will
interest those concerned about the ethical dimensions
of assessment and the intersection of examination,
equity, globalization and social control.
