RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The effect of student feedback on teaching quality has been well-documented. However, only a few studies have examined the impact of feedback on clinical teachers delivering cross-border medical education in this geographical region. The aim of this study is to investigate (i) the quality of teaching among clinical teachers in a cross-border medical education setup, (ii) the impact of student feedback on teaching effectiveness, (iii) the differences in ratings among different groups of students, and (iv) factors that improve clinical teaching. METHODS: Fifty-seven clinical teachers and 140 students participated in this study. Teachers received feedback on their performance and were allowed to reflect on them. Six months later, the teachers received feedback again. Additionally, semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with 5 selected clinical teachers working in 2 different hospitals to explore the factors that influenced clinical teaching. RESULT: Overall, nearly half of the clinical teachers (n = 25) showed a trend of greater scores in the second assessment, while most of the remaining teachers (n = 24) continued to have more or less the same score or marginal fall in the second assessment. Even though few clinical teachers demonstrated significantly lesser scores, careful observation of data showed that the mean value of the second score either remained above (n = 5) or closer (n = 2) to the cut-off value of 3.74, except one teacher who recorded the least mean score of 3.17 in the second assessment. In qualitative analysis, teachers emphasised that the student feedback allowed them to develop more effective teaching approaches and strategies. CONCLUSION: The pattern of results suggests that the effect of student feedback on teaching quality can have multiple outcomes, mostly positive or neutral, and very rarely negative. This study also advocates that feedback can be more beneficial if strengthened by other interventions like faculty training.
