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. 2021 Mar 11;31(2):655-663.
doi: 10.1007/s40670-021-01242-w. eCollection 2021 Apr.

A Structured Peer Assessment Method with Regular Reinforcement Promotes Longitudinal Self-Perceived Development of Medical Students' Feedback Skills

Alice Tzeng  1 , Bethany Bruno #  1 , Jessica Cooperrider #  1 , Perry B Dinardo #  1 , Rachael Baird  1   2 , Carol Swetlik  1   3 , Brittany N Goldstein  1   4 , Radhika Rastogi  1   5 , Alicia J Roth  1   6 , Timothy D Gilligan  1   7 , Julie M Rish  1   8   9
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A Structured Peer Assessment Method with Regular Reinforcement Promotes Longitudinal Self-Perceived Development of Medical Students' Feedback Skills

Alice Tzeng et al. Med Sci Educ. .

Abstract

Background: Given that training is integral to providing constructive peer feedback, we examined the impact of a regularly reinforced, structured peer assessment method on student-reported feedback abilities throughout a two-year preclinical Communication Skills course.

Methods: Three consecutive 32-student medical school classes were introduced to the Observation-Reaction-Feedback method for providing verbal assessment during Year 1 Communication Skills orientation. In biweekly small-group sessions, students received worksheets reiterating the method and practiced giving verbal feedback to peers. Periodic questionnaires evaluated student perceptions of feedback delivery and the Observation-Reaction-Feedback method.

Results: Biweekly reinforcement of the Observation-Reaction-Feedback method encouraged its uptake, which correlated with reports of more constructive, specific feedback. Compared to non-users, students who used the method noted greater improvement in comfort with assessing peers in Year 1 and continued growth of feedback abilities in Year 2. Comfort with providing modifying feedback and verbal feedback increased over the two-year course, while comfort with providing reinforcing feedback and written feedback remained similarly high. Concurrently, student preference for feedback anonymity decreased.

Conclusions: Regular reinforcement of a peer assessment framework can increase student usage of the method, which promotes the expansion of self-reported peer feedback skills over time. These findings support investigation of analogous strategies in other medical education settings.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-021-01242-w.

Keywords: Collaborative learning; Critique model; Peer feedback; Verbal appraisal.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interestOn behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Project timeline. The CS course occurs during the first two years of medical school at CCLCM. Three 32-student classes participated in this project as a part of the course. Arrows indicate questionnaire time points. Y1S1 corresponds to the first (baseline) questionnaire during Year 1, and subsequent arrows are labelled similarly. At the time of data analysis, Class 3 had just concluded the Year 1 CS course and thus, Year 2 data for this class were not included in the study
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