Initiatives to Improve Feedback Culture in the Final Year of a Veterinary Program

Abstract

General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms AbstractDespite the recognised importance of feedback in education, student satisfaction with the feedback process in medical and veterinary programmes is often disappointing. We undertook various initiatives to try to improve the "feedback culture" in the final clinical year of our veterinary programme, focussing on formative verbal feedback. The initiatives included emailed guidelines to staff and students, a faculty development workshop, and a reflective portfolio task for students.Following these initiatives, staff and students were surveyed regarding their perceptions of formative feedback in clinical rotations, and focus groups were held to explore issues further. The amount of feedback appeared to have increased, along with improved recognition of feedback by students and increased staff confidence and competence in the process. Other themes that emerged included inconsistencies in feedback amongst staff and between rotations, difficulties with giving verbal feedback to students particularly when it relates to professionalism, the consequences of feedback for both staff and students, changes and challenges in students' feedback-seeking behaviour, and the difficulties in providing accurate, personal end-of-rotation assessments. This project has helped improve the feedback culture within our clinics; the importance of sustaining and developing this further is discussed.

Challenges and Issues in the Evaluation of Teaching Quality: How Does it Affect Teachers' Professional Practice? A UK Perspective

“…In the 2012 NSS the University of Bristol Veterinary School's score for satisfaction with feedback and assessment was 51%. This led to the introduction of various initiatives designed to improve the feedback culture in the final year of the programme 31 ; in 2013 the score rose to 64%, and in 2014 to 71% e .…”

“…Similarly to concerns in school education that a greater focus on league tables has influenced teaching behaviour 35 , there is potential in HE that an excessive focus on SET could lead to inappropriate prioritisation of specific areas for improvement 34 ; skilled and informed analysis of results is essential. However, when SET is viewed in a more positive framework and employed as a catalyst for change, results can be encouraging 31 .…”

Faculty Development for a New Curriculum: Implementing a Strategy for Veterinary Teachers within the Wider University Context

“…Contemporaneously with the training of staff via the workshop series, the National Student Survey (a major national survey which is widely used to inform media league tables and rankings of courses between UK Universities a ) indicated a marked improvement in the scores for student satisfaction with assessment and feedback in the Veterinary programme (from 51% in 2012, to 64% in 2013 (64%) 19 ; the feedback workshop was considered to be the most useful of these initiatives.…”

“…Workshop 5 was also run for pre-clinical teachers on the veterinary, medical and dental programmes. After the first iteration of the series, certain changes including the improved feedback culture in clinics 19 and changes in assessment processes led to staff reporting that conversations with students relating to professional behaviour were proving more challenging than anticipated. This led to the development of Workshop 7, co- …”

“…Recent studies have evaluated the impact of a longitudinal faculty development programme on teacher self-efficacy beliefs 24 , and teachers' perceptions of their competence 11 . As described above, (and summarised in Table 2), evaluation of the Langford workshops centres on post-workshop questionnaires relating to the usefulness of the workshop; additional evaluation was undertaken to assess the impact on the feedback culture in the clinics 19 . A collaborative needs-assessment is currently being undertaken for further development of teaching and learning workshops at the University of Bristol and University of Edinburgh veterinary schools.…”