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Giving Feedback to Students

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Teaching Anatomy

Abstract

In a student-centered teaching and learning environment, successful achievement of competencies is strongly dependent on a dynamic exchange of performance-related communication. Students cannot be expected to know what they do or do not know if they have nothing to measure it against. The use of formative feedback, as it relates to student performance, is no longer an optional exercise but rather an essential element in helping students achieve successful learning outcomes. Formative feedback provides students with meaningful commentary relating to performance for the purpose of improving performance. The literature pertaining to formative feedback is abundant in the field of education and business but only recently introduced in medical education. This chapter distinguishes two types of feedback that may be applied in the anatomy course assessment structure: (i) “directive feedback” used to provide students with information on knowledge deficits that may place them at risk for achieving required grades and (ii) “facilitative feedback” used to provide students with verbal or written commentary on their performance relating to nontraditional discipline-independent skills with the intention of guiding them through their professional development. Anatomy teachers should capitalize on their ability to influence students early in the medical curriculum and incorporate the practice of providing regular formative feedback while teaching anatomy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Anatomy, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Nirusha Lachman

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  1. Nirusha Lachman
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Correspondence to Nirusha Lachman .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macao Special Administrative Region, China

    Lap Ki Chan

  2. Department of Clinical Anatomy, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science, Rochester, MN, USA

    Wojciech Pawlina

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Lachman, N. (2020). Giving Feedback to Students. In: Chan, L.K., Pawlina, W. (eds) Teaching Anatomy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43283-6_19

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