Does feedback have a role in improving the learning and assessment in first professional medical students: a questionnaire based study in anatomy

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Feedback is considered as a potential instrument for revamping the system of education, and playsa major role in learning. It is the specific information about the comparison between a students’ observedperformance and a standard, given with the intent to improve the students’ performance. Thus it is intended toimprove skills or change behaviour, rather than being an estimate of the students’ worth.Materials and Methods: This observational study was performed on 150 first-year medical students in theDepartment of Anatomy. Three sets of questionnaires were developed. First set of questionnaire included questionsto assess the students’ perception about the importance and need for feedback in the learning process, secondset contained questions about the contents of feedback and third set had questions about the process of feedback.The data were compiled and analyzed.Results: In General, 48.66% of students indicated receiving some sort of feedback, 28% not receiving feedbackand 23.33% could not decide whether they had received any kind of feedback. 82.66% students indicated thatfeedback was important for their learning and 86.66% expressed their need for regular feedback. Majority of thestudents expressed their interest in receiving feedback after their formative and summative assessments. 92.66%agreed with the statement that feedback is more effective when negative information is sandwiched betweenpositive information. 85.33% and 76.66% preferred receiving one-to-one and interactive feedback respectively.Conclusion: Feedback simplifies the improvement process of self-assessment in learning, provides theopportunities to exercise regulating students’ own learning standards.