Transitions to successful careers: Pharmacy, psychology and business students reflecting on practicum feedback

Abstract

Feedback is an important part of students’ learning experiences in formal educational and work-integrated learning settings. Work-integrated learning or practicum supervisors and students may differ in their expectations and understanding of feedback. Not all students, recognise feedback, know how to seek feedback, nor how to act on it. These factors ultimately impact upon the usefulness of feedback for the student learning experience. The project reported in this chapter explores the impact of feedback and growth mindset workshops, on student’s perceptions and responses to post practicum feedback. The face-to-face workshops introduced students from a range of disciplines to the concept of growth mindset and the resilience to seek, engage with and respond to feedback. Students were invited to complete surveys to explore differences in their understanding of feedback, and perceived resilience to receive and respond to positive and negative feedback. Students reported that the workshops provided them with opportunities to think about feedback, and tools to recognise and respond to feedback. Students also stated the workshop was helpful for identifying new opportunities to seek feedback, particularly ones they had not previously considered. Students in early years of their studies, or who had experienced fewer practicum hours found the workshop more helpful than those in later years with more practicum experience. This study provided insight on the value of workshops to help students recognise, contextualise and respond to feedback and provided tools to enable students to seek feedback. The workshops may also assist students to develop their resilience to engage with negative feedback. Further work will investigate strategically timing workshops for greatest value and impact and a more in-depth comparison across discipline areas.