Provision of feedback to medical teachers on their educational performance: perspectives of internal medicine teachers

Students' Experiences of Peer Observed Teaching: A Qualitative Interview Study

PHENOMENON

Development of teaching skills is an important aspect of medical student training. One method of developing teaching skills is participation in peer teaching with observation and feedback from peers. This study aims to explore student teachers' experiences of peer observation of teaching and how they intend to utilize this feedback.

APPROACH

We conducted individual semi-structured interviews with peer tutors who had experienced peer observation of their small group teaching and subsequent feedback. The interviews were conducted by a medical student peer not involved in the peer observation of teaching scheme. They were audio recorded and transcribed. The pseudonymised transcripts were coded independently by two researchers using thematic analysis.

FINDINGS

Nine students participated in interviews lasting a mean of 42 minutes. We identified three main themes: motivations for observation, experiences of observation, and responses to feedback. Students were motivated to have their teaching observed by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors: to develop their skills and competence as a teacher, in recognition of the important role this plays in their career, to provide reassurance that they are providing good quality teaching, to ensure the content of their teaching is appropriate and accurate, and to provide evidence of engagement in, and development of, teaching. Students described feeling nervous before the observations and preparing more for their teaching than they might normally, however, during the observations they felt more comfortable which they attributed to the peer-peer relationship. Students described finding the narrative feedback more useful than the quantitative elements as it provided more detail as to how they might improve. Several students described how they have used the feedback they have received on their teaching to improve subsequent sessions.

INSIGHTS

Peer observation of teaching is a useful and acceptable method of providing feedback on student teaching and recipients intend to use this feedback to improve their teaching.

Residents' and supervisors' experiences when using a feedback-model in post-graduate medical education

BACKGROUND

Supervisors play a key part as role models and supporting the learning during residents' post-graduate medical education, but sometimes lack sufficient pedagogic training and are challenged by high demands in today's healthcare. The aim of this study was to describe the strengths and areas for improvement identified in the supervision process by residents and supervisors in post-graduate medical education.

METHODS

This study included supervisors and residents working at departments and health centres who have used a web-based questionnaire, as a part of the Evaluation and Feedback For Effective Clinical Teaching (EFFECT) model, during the period 2016-2019. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyse ratings and comments to describe strengths and areas for improvement in the supervision process.

RESULTS

The study included 287 resident evaluations of supervisors and 78 self-evaluations by supervisors. The supervisor as a role model, being available, and, giving personal support, were the three most important strengths identified by the residents and supervisors. Residents in primary care also identified the role modelling of general practice competence as a strength, whereas residents and supervisors in hospital departments addressed supervisors as energetic and showing work was fun. The area with the need of most improvement was, Giving and receiving feedback.

CONCLUSIONS

To be able to give feedback, residents and supervisors, needed to see each other in work, and the learning environment had to offer time and space to pedagogical processes, like feedback, to improve the learning environment.

Faculty Feedback Program Evaluation in CIMS Multan, Pakistan

Faculty feedback program (FFP) at CMH Multan Institute of Medical Sciences (CIMS) was conducted for obtaining feedback for basic medical sciences faculty and evaluated to highlight its weaknesses for future improvement. The evaluation design was utilization-focused evaluation (UFE) keeping in mind its two essential elements. First element is the primary intended users (PIU) of the evaluation, namely the college faculty and students which were clearly identified and personally engaged to investigate intended use of the evaluation. Second element required the evaluator to ensure that the intended use of evaluation by PIU guide all other decisions made about the evaluation process. It was a mixed method study (qualitative and quantitative methods both) conducted from August 2018 to August 2019 in CIMS Multan with IRB approval following the steps of UFE. The whole program evaluation was conducted in two parts - first part constituted the 2018 manual FFP evaluation that provided suggestions for a FFP conducted in 2019 online. In step 2 the 2019 online FFP was evaluated again forming basis for future recommendations. Hence the PIUs response was recorded twice in the evaluation cycle - initially after the manual 2018 basic science FFP (response rate: 53%) - after which based on our findings a report was generated and recommendations suggested which were implemented in the 2019 online FFP and response observed again (response rate: 85.7%) to complete the evaluation cycle. Open-end questions were asked from faculty (qualitative analysis) with three themes emerging regarding FFP procedure, questionnaire and timing. An acknowledgement of shift of FFP procedure from manual (2018) to online system (2019) was observed in which faculty praised the ease (72.2%), confidentiality (66.6%), anonymity (50%) and transparency (33.3%) of the online system compared to manual FFP, which was reported to be a rather tense experience (83%). Regarding questionnaire, 38% faculty members reported feedback questions asked from students to be vague and 66.6% claimed that the timing was inappropriate and should have been end of academic year. When asked for suggestions for improvement in 2018 FFP, 72% faculty suggested training students on providing feedback and making the procedure user friendly (83%). Student response regarding both feedback was obtained online by a survey with closed ended questions (quantitative study). Fifty-three percent college students were satisfied with the online FFP giving an average rating of 3.2 to the software user interface and 85% affirmed that using the online software aided in providing anonymous responses helping them provide candid feedback. Seventy-five percent students agreed that online feedback system in 2019 had streamlined the feedback process and made it more efficient compared to the paper-based manual survey of 2018. After evaluating 2019 online FFP, few suggestions were recommended for future FFP including obtaining formative as well as summative faculty feedback, supplementing feedback with teacher’s self-assessment/pen picture and incorporating 360 multi-source feedback.