Track A4 - Assessment Literacy in Student Midwives

Jo Killingley, Middlesex University, School of Health and Education

As part of the revisiting assessment theme of the Learning and Teaching Conference 2015, Jo’s talk centred on providing prompt feedback to students immediately after one of the exams called the Objective Structured Clinical Examination, OSCE, which she carried out as a research project. Jo identified that:

• Feedback has to promote critical thinking and self-judgement
•   Feedback has to be behaviour focused
• Clarity and clear articulation – students want to be in control of their learning and be motivated through clear feedback. Feedback helps students take control of their learning.
•  Timeliness – it’s important that feedback provided is very close to the time of the event in       order for it to be effective 
• Coping with learning – feedback provokes high levels of anxiety 
• Feedback should be constructive. Destructive feedback can be more in the perception by the recipient than in the intended feedback content.

Jo described in detail how much dedication is required to support and mentor students through their learning progress on their Midwifery course and the value quality feedback played in this process.

Report by John Koushappas, Senior Educational Technologist, Centre for Academic Practice Enhancement (CAPE)