Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Health Professions Education)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (Centre for Health Professions Education) by Author "Mubuuke, Aloysius Gonzaga"

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    Exploring health sciences students’ experiences of feedback in a problem based learning tutorial : a case study in an African Medical School
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2018-03) Mubuuke, Aloysius Gonzaga; Louw, Alwyn Jacobus Nicolas; Van Schalkwyk, Susan; Stellenbosch University.Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Centre for Health Professions Education.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : Problem Based Learning (PBL) has been widely adopted by medical educators across the globe since its inception at McMaster Medical School in Canada. It is a student-centered instructional approach in which learners collaboratively solve problems and reflect on their learning experiences. PBL involves designing tasks as triggers for learning, and setting them in a context that may be relevant in the real world. Students work in small groups also known as tutorial groups supported by tutors, with the emphasis being student centered rather than teacher centered. This enables students to take charge of their own learning, conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and also apply knowledge and skills while developing solutions to a presented learning task. In such a setting, students construct their own knowledge and regulate their own learning activities in order to achieve the intended learning outcomes. Tutor feedback is an important aspect of the PBL tutorial process. This feedback is aimed at identifying students’ strengths as well as learning gaps on a number of outcomes. These may include: knowledge, team work, communication skills, interpersonal skills, life-long and leadership skills among others. This study highlights the experiences and perceptions of health sciences students regarding tutor feedback in a PBL setting. Learning in a PBL tutorial group setting is not only a cognitive process, but also influenced by socio-contextual factors. Therefore, this study has utilized both psychological as well as socio-cultural theory to understand and explain the students’ experiences and perceptions of tutor feedback. It is envisaged that findings from the study will perhaps contribute to not only knowledge on the subject of feedback, but also to general teaching practice in health sciences education within Africa and beyond. Therefore, the over-arching objective of the study was to explore students’ experiences and responses to tutor feedback as well as factors that influence those responses in a PBL tutorial setting in an African context. It was an exploratory qualitative study using a case study approach. The study involved third year undergraduate health sciences students from Makerere University, College of Health Sciences that had attended PBL tutorials. The health sciences students who participated in the study were drawn from five disciplines namely: Medicine, Radiography, Nursing, Pharmacy and Dentistry. The tutorial groups thus consisted of students from these disciplines. Some of the tutors were also involved in the study to provide more understanding of the student experiences. Purposive-convenience sampling was used to select participants into the study. Multiple data collection methods used, included: in-depth individual interviews with students and tutors, focus group discussions with students, document reviews and observations of the tutorial process and the feedback process. Participant responses from the interviews and focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed. The observations were guided by a checklist. For analysis of the transcriptions, thematic analysis was used in which raw data was coded. The developed codes were further related resulting into categories and subsequently into themes and clusters. The analysis was iterative in nature in which data was constantly compared. The findings from the student interviews and focus group discussions were grouped into five clusters, each cluster having a number of themes. The first cluster related to the focus and nature of tutor feedback received by students during PBL tutorials. The themes from this cluster reflected that tutor feedback seemed to be limited in scope to address all the intended PBL outcomes. This observation was also reflected in the interview responses with the tutors. The second cluster was about factors influencing students’ responses to tutor feedback. It was found out that both cognitive and socio-contextual factors influenced students’ responses to tutor feedback. The themes in yet another cluster related to the ways in which students utilized tutor feedback in their learning. It was found out that students used feedback to activate their prior knowledge, reflect upon their own performance and also to engage in self-regulated learning processes. The last cluster and related themes spoke to the students’ experiences of the feedback delivery process. The responses from the student interviews and focus group discussions were supported by key findings from the tutorial observations, document reviews and information from the tutors. An interpretation of these findings was guided by a framework developed from the Activity Theory. Overall, the key outcome of this study was the development of a structured feedback tool for PBL tutors.