Curriculum‐embedded performance assessment in higher education: maximum efficiency and minimum disruption

Increasingly, institutions of higher education are required to evaluate student progress and programme effectiveness through implementation of performance assessment practices. Faculty members frequently resist performance assessment because of concerns that assessment activities will increase workloads, reduce time for scholarly activities, eliminate professional autonomy, and reduce faculty work into component parts or discrete technical competences. This paper describes how curriculum‐embedded performance assessment can be used to evaluate student and programme effectiveness without placing an undue burden on faculty. Examples of the use of curriculum‐embedded performance assessment strategies in a graduate‐level educational psychology programme are provided.