A Survey of Health Sciences Faculty Practices and Attitudes Regarding the Peer Feedback Component of Team-Based Learning.

Background: Peer feedback, an essential component of team-based learning (TBL), fosters accountability among team members. Effective utilization can be advantageous for both students and faculty, although there may be many implementation challenges. Our study objectives were to (1) identify current practices of peer feedback in TBL, (2) identify curricular assessment related to peer feedback, and (3) identify challenges with peer feedback in TBL.

Methods: A survey link was sent via medical and TBL web boards. The survey asked for both quantitative and qualitative information regarding the peer feedback process. Quantitative results were analyzed using SPSS®. NVivo® was used to identify and code themes in open-ended responses. Both investigators reviewed and agreed upon themes.

Results: Sixty-one TBL users in health professions completed the survey. Multiple health professions were represented with medicine and pharmacy being the most common. Information on current practices showed a wide variety of implementation. Curricular alignment was common. Time and training were the most common challenges and difficulties.

Conclusions: Meaningful feedback should be considered an important curricular outcome. Specific learning objectives and appropriate assessment strategies should be developed to meet the mission of the program. Students must receive guidance from faculty members on how to improve their skills in providing effective feedback. Overall, faculty saw peer evaluation as valuable. However, the time commitment, lack of student training, and student attitudes make implementation difficult. Future research should focus on best practices to streamline the TBL feedback process and on student training regarding how to provide effective feedback.