Perceptions of Feedback Among Undergraduate and Postgraduate Students of Four Health Science Disciplines

Feedback - information that assists students to bridge the gap between current and intended academic performance - is an important support for student learning. Yet data suggests that some students are often under whelmed with the feedback they receive. Two factors potentially influencing this perception are entry level and type of health science program. To investigate this further, 492 undergraduate and postgraduate students from four health science disciplines (occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech pathology and audiology) at a large Australian university were asked to complete a survey on the feedback that they had received during their studies. Students reported that they valued feedback with 93% seriously engaging with their feedback and 88% considering that feedback assisted their learning. However, different perceptions on some areas of feedback were reported by different groups. Postgraduate students had significantly (p<0.01 to 0.0005) higher satisfaction with several aspects of feedback than undergraduate students, while audiology students reported significantly (p<0.05 to 0.0001) higher satisfaction levels than the other disciplinary groups. Fifty-eight percent of the students felt that feedback would be improved if it was more timely and if there was more of it, particularly in practical classes (55%). Methods of improving the feedback provided to these students are discussed.