Abstract:
BACKGROUND / AIM : Feedback on clinical reasoning skills
during fieldwork education is regarded as vital in occupational
therapy students’ professional development. The
nature of supervisors’ feedback however, could be confirmative
and/or corrective and corrective feedback could be
with or without suggestions on how to improve. The aim
of the study was to evaluate the impact of supervisors’
feedback on final-year occupational therapy students’ clinical
reasoning skills through comparing the nature of feedback
with the students’ subsequent clinical reasoning
ability.
METHOD : A mixed-method approach with a convergent
parallel design was used combining the collection and
analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. From focus
groups and interviews with students, data were collected
and analysed qualitatively to determine how the students
experienced the feedback they received from their supervisors.
By quantitatively comparing the final practical exam
grades with the nature of the feedback, their fieldwork
End-of-Term grades and average academic performance it became possible to merge the results for comparison and
interpretation.
RESULTS : Students’ clinical reasoning skills seem to be
improved through corrective feedback if accompanied by
suggestions on how to improve, irrespective of their average
academic performance. Supervisors were inclined to
underrate high performing students and overrate lower
performing students.
CONCLUSIONS : Students who obtained higher grades in
the final practical examinations received more corrective
feedback with suggestions on how to improve from their
supervisors. Confirmative feedback alone may not be
sufficient for improving the clinical reasoning skills of
students.
