Peer feedback as a strategy to foster feedback literacy in first-year allied health students

Abstract

IntroductionDeveloping a student's capacity to provide and utilise feedback are transferable skills from classroom to employment. Feedback literacy encompasses a student's ability to recognise, understand and take action on feedback. The link between feedback literacy and peer feedback remains under investigated. The aims of this project were twofold: firstly, to evaluate first-year allied health students' behaviours and attitudes towards feedback; and secondly, to assess the capability of these students to provide peer feedback. MethodsParticipants were first-year osteopathy students enrolled at Victoria University, Melbourne in 2019. Feedback learning activities were embedded throughout the year. Firstly, participants were invited to complete a Likert questionnaire to assess their behaviours and attitudes towards feedback. The survey was administered at three time points throughout the year. Secondly, the quality of peer feedback provided by the students was assessed at two time points (semester one and two) using a quantitative rubric. ResultsA significant difference was identified in student behaviours and attitudes towards feedback over time (p<0.05). Peer feedback rubric scores significantly improved between semester one and two (p < 0.001). DiscussionFirst-year allied health student behaviours and attitudes towards feedback can develop throughout a study year. Participating in peer-feedback tasks, and the associated learning activities appeared to improve peer feedback quality. This may be due to experience with the task, the development of feedback literacy, and/or developing an appreciation of actionable feedback from peers. These findings highlight a potential link between feedback literacy and peer assessment and has implications for university curriculum design and workplace learning.

Using a 3-Phase Peer Feedback to Enhance Nursing Students' Reflective Abilities, Clinical Competencies, Feedback Practices, and Sense of Empowerment

“…Providing quality and timely FF is challenging in higher education because of numerous factors, including heavy teaching workloads, increased student populations, and insufficient time to observe and provide feedback. 26,27 Surprisingly, PVIF did not exhibit better reflective outcomes than PVEF or FF, which is inconsistent with prior research indicating that video review in feedback or debriefing enhances reflection. 17 Nevertheless, our findings are supported by a recent study in which video review was found to be beneficial for learning, but in which video itself did not ensure success; in this case, sufficient instructional effort is required from the tutor to redirect students' focus to critical aspects for improvement.…”

“…In contrast, increase in reflective abilities did not reach statistical significance in the FF group, which could be due to limited feedback time, as 1 faculty tutor had to evaluate performances and provided feedback for a class of 10 students. Providing quality and timely FF is challenging in higher education because of numerous factors, including heavy teaching workloads, increased student populations, and insufficient time to observe and provide feedback 26,27…”

Systematic review of feedback literacy instruments for health professions students

“…Exploratory factor analysis revealed a three-factor structure and the Cronbach's alpha was 0.96. Tripodi et al [ 17 ], 2021 Australia Feedback Literacy and Attitudes Survey Quantitative 138 Year 1 Osteopathy students The questionnaire were developed based on the feedback literacy framework by Carless and Boud [ 10 ] and the Cronbach's alpha was 0.86. Note: Instrument titles marked with an asterisk (*) are given based on the article content as the instrument were not given a formal title in the original articles itself.…”

“…Although majority of the instruments did not develop their instruments based on the concept of feedback literacy outlined by Carless and Boud [ 10 ] the constructs within these and more recent studies converge on the use of feedback literacy in learning. They can generally be divided into assessment of students' perception of the feedback process [ 16 , 17 , [49] , [50] , [51] , 53 , 54 ] and assessment of students’ behaviours in receiving feedback [ 17 , 52 , 55 ]. Overall, the included instruments have variable constructs for different contexts.…”

“…Considering that feedback literacy contributes to learning, its measurement is needed as an objective way for educators to evaluate the students' capacities to participate in the feedback process [ 14 , 15 ]. Several tools have been developed to measure feedback literacy for health professions students [ 16 , 17 ]. These instruments were developed based on Carless and Boud's conceptualization of feedback literacy [ 10 ].…”