Comparing student and tutor perceptions regarding feedback
Keywords:
Feedback, Informal, Peer, Qualitative, Student, TeacherAbstract
Background: Feedback is information provided by another person regarding a skill, understanding or performance. Although there is substantial evidence that feedback is a critical influence on student learning there is little research on feedback in pharmacy education.
Aim: To increase awareness of the complexity of feedback by comparing and contrasting the perceptions of teachers and students regarding feedback in pharmacy practice workshops.
Methods: Focus groups were conducted among final-year pharmacy students and tutors who taught into the third year of a four-year BPharm program.
Results: Mutually identified influences on feedback were: student-student and tutor-student interactions, student confidence or anxiety, assessment, group size and teaching skills. Only tutors identified academic preparedness and layout of the learning space as influencing feedback, while group composition emerged from student data. An underlying desire for engagement suggests that there is a social process associated with feedback.
Conclusion: There was a degree of consensus between tutors and students regarding influences on feedback. Modifiable influences, including group size and tutor training, could enhance feedback.
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