Provision of feedback to medical teachers on their educational performance: perspectives of internal medicine teachers

PURPOSE: Teachers’ evaluation and giving feedback on their educational performance has been a great concern of all medical universities, especially in clinical settings. The opinion of teachers (as feedback recipients) about the feedback process and its usefulness is very critical for the feedback to be effective. This study aimed to identify the perspectives of internal medicine teachers on receiving feedback about their educational performance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In a qualitative content analysis study, from October 2016 to July 2017, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the internal medicine teachers selected purposefully. Recorded and transcribed interviews were analyzed using an inductive content analysis approach. RESULTS: Three themes emerged: “Feedback elements”, “Feedback outcomes”, and “Effective feedback strategies”. The first includes two categories: human and background elements. “Human elements” consists of three subcategories including “Sources of feedback”, “Feedback provider”, and “Feedback recipient”. “Background elements” includes three subcategories which are the underlying conditions in the feedback process: “Performing performance”, “Data collection”, and “Giving feedback”. The third theme contains three categories: “Developing a systemic approach to feedback”, “Appropriate educational policies for teacher recruitment and promotion”, and “Using others’ experiences”. CONCLUSION: The current study represents clinical teachers’ opinions about the feedback elements, issues affecting the feedback process, and their recommendations for effective feedback. All these helped the researchers to develop a feedback cycle, which starts with “performing the performance” and continues with “performance data collection”, “data analysis and interpretation”, “feedback presentation”, and “feedback follow-up”. The researchers recommend the feedback officials to study teachers’ opinions obtained in the current study and use the feedback cycle to provide more effective feedback.