Investigating the process of goal setting within feedback given in a teaching module in Phase 1 at Leicester Medical School.

Problem

Feedback has been recognized as “one of the most powerful influences on learning and achievement” (1). However, Bing-You et al have highlighted several important skills that students need to be able to effectively use feedback to enhance learning (2). One technique that aims to influence the proactive and reflective use of feedback is goal setting (1,2).These are extremely valuable skills, vital for the life long learning of a medical career.This study aims to investigate whether goal setting is used in the process of feedback in the Compassionate, Holistic, Diagnostic Detective (CHDD) Module. This is an opportunity to evaluate the feedback in CHDD and highlight differences in the practice of feedback giving and goal setting. This will inform feedback given in other settings within the Medical School. (1) John Hattie, Helen Timperley. The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research. 2007 Mar(2) Bing-You RG, Trowbridge RL. Why Medical Educators May Be Failing at Feedback. JAMA. 2009 Sep

Approach

An overview of the current feedback practice at Leicester Medical School was achieved by discussing the approaches to feedback with clinical academics. Medical Educators from Warwick and Aston Medical Schools were also consulted to compare feedback practice in Medical Schools with similar curriculums. In addition, feedback delivery was observed in the CHDD module and a clinical teaching setting in General Practice. The CHDD module was identified as providing an opportunity to assess feedback from both the student and tutors’ perspective. A literature review has enabled understanding of the progression of feedback practices within medical education and recognition of the strategies already used and those still in development, such as the Educational Alliance (3). Focus groups have been chosen as the most powerful method to investigate how tutors perceive the delivery of their feedback and to compare this to how students utilize the feedback they receive. The module is taught by GP educators and this study aims to highlight ways of improving how their feedback is conveyed and used. (3) Telio S, Ajjawi R, Regehr G. The "educational alliance" as a framework for reconceptualizing feedback in medical education. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. 2015 May

Findings

This study is ongoing and results will be presented.

Consequences

This study aims to understand how goal setting is interlinked as an integral part of the feedback process. A potential result of this study is that student satisfaction with the module will be improved as a result of enhancing feedback though goal setting. In addition, GP educators could translate this to their teaching practice.