Teaching
Tips is an educational newsletter sponsored by the
Medical Education Committee (MEC) and developed by the Office of Curriculum Development
and Management (CDM). The newsletter has two main purposes.
- To provide faculty and staff helpful instructional
information.
- To improve communication among the University of Alabama
School of Medicine’s (UASOM) campuses Birmingham, Huntsville, & Tuscaloosa.
Teaching Tips
will be published in October. It will be a printed format like this one for those
individuals who do not have convenient access to a computer. Teaching Tips
will contain news items, announce upcoming educational events, and identify useful links
to supplemental material located on CDM, other UASOM, and other medical schools’ web
sites. It will be distributed to all residents. We urge you to begin to accumulate the
newsletters for later reference to the instructional tips that will be provided in each
issue. An archive of all newsletters will be maintained on the CDM web page. This
particular format is being used to announce two other communication efforts: the
electronic newsletter and our CDM web site.
Electronic Newsletter. MECNews,
also sponsored by the MEC, is an educational publication with the same
purposes as Teaching Tips. CDM developed the newsletter and made its first
distribution in August. It is a very succinct electronic newsletter distributed via
e-mail. This newsletter provides a synopsis of news items and events with a clickable link
to the more detailed supplemental material on CDM’s, other UASOM units’, and
other medical schools’ web sites. If you did not receive MECNews and
would like to be added to the distribution list, please contact Julie Walsh, EdD at (205)
934-3177.
Giving
Effective Feedback to Students
Feedback is crucial to medical education
because it offers the learner insight into his or her performance as well as the
consequences of the actions. Effective feedback can provide the students information for
making the necessary changes in behavior and skills.
When, where, what, and how feedback is
given can make a tremendous difference in effective versus ineffective feedback. For some
useful guidelines on this subject, please see the reverse side.
Guidelines for Giving
Feedback
When and
Where:
Long delays between behavior and feedback tend to reduce
feedback effectiveness. This is particularly important in initial stages of learning when
students are uncertain about the quality of their performance.
- Give feedback consistently/routinely.
This keeps it from always being focused on problems.
Remember that this is an opportunity to learn from the student about conditions on the
service while also providing an assessment of the student’s performance.
- Schedule a specific time for feedback.
Its perceived importance is indicated at least partly by
the fact that time is made for it and it is not an after-thought. Negotiate a convenient
time with the student. Allot an adequate amount of time for a thoughtful two-way
discussion.
- Find a private, relaxed setting.
This needs to be at a place where confidentiality can be
maintained and where interruptions are avoided.
How to deliver:
- Begin and end with positives.
This sets the student somewhat more at ease and opens his
or her receptivity, while minimizing defensiveness.
- Use descriptive language based on examples and avoid
value-laden language.
Generalize, if necessary, on the basis of a few observations. Be careful about
generalizations based on only one observation. Be careful about the use of words like
always, never, completely, etc.; there are usually exceptions to everything.
- Praise or criticize the behavior not the person.
The behavior is the focus of your discussion. Criticism of
the behavior seems less like a personal attack than criticism of the individual.
- Verify recipient understanding.
Ask the student to summarize your areas of concern and
outline what he/she will do correctively. If the student’s summary is not
sufficiently complete, fill in the remainder yourself. One convenient means to assure
there is agreement on what your concerns are, is a printed checklist with the areas of
concern marked.
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What to
include:
- Only issues related to this student’s
performance.
Avoid references to other students’ performance. Doing
so creates undesirable competition and may indicate that confidentiality is not
maintained.
- Combination of positives and negatives. Begin
and end with positives. This puts the student somewhat more at ease and may make the
student more receptive to criticism. If the criticisms are the key, however, be sure they
do not get lost in a sea of platitudes.
- Only those things that can be changed. There
is no value to criticizing those characteristics or behaviors that the student cannot
change.
- Behaviors that have been directly observed or on
which there is firsthand evidence.
Base the comments on your observation, not on what others
may have told you. If others alert you to a problem, take the time to observe it yourself
before discussing it with the student.
- Joint exploration of corrective action and the
timeframe for it.
Ask the student what he/she suggests as a means of
correction. Guide the student’s response if necessary; don’t allow the student
to try a correction method that you will not accept later.
- Your willingness to provide remedial assistance or
advise the student where to seek help.
Assure the student that you or another competent source
will be available to help with the necessary corrective action to improve the deficient
skill or behavior. The student will more likely view you as interested in their
improvement and less as just a critic.
- Date of follow-up observation and assessment.
Specify a target date for another review of the
student’s progress.
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