Abstract
BackgroundReflective practice (RP) plays a crucial role in encouraging learners to think critically and consciously about their performances. Providing constructive feedback can further enhance RP. But non-Western learners might face different learning barriers compared to learners in the West, where RP originated.MethodsIn this retrospective study, we assessed RP and feedback performances on Thai medical students’ patient history-taking skills. We applied RP and peer feedback, along with feedback from the instructors, during the history-taking sessions of the ten-week introduction course for fourth-year medical students. Twelve history-taking sessions were used for the analysis. Two instructors assessed students’ reflective performance and categorised them into one of the six stages of Gibbs’ reflective cycle; their feedback performances were analysed using Pendleton’s model. We investigated the correlations between students’ overall grade point average (GPAX) and patient history-taking scores on the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Students’ opinions of the RP teaching method were also collected.ResultsAll (n = 48) students participated in our study. The students’ mean age was 21.2 ± 0.5 years. The majority of the students were female (64.6%). The data indicated that 33 and 4% of the participants were categorised into the evaluation stage and action plan stage of Gibbs’ reflective cycle, respectively. In addition, 22 and 15% of the participants were able to state what their peers did well and suggest how peers could improve their skills, respectively. All students passed the minimum passing level of four history-taking OSCE stations. Participants agreed that RP was a useful tool (mean 9.0, SD 0.1), which enhanced their thought processes (mean 8.4, SD 0.2) and future performances (mean 8.2, SD 0.2). However, there was no correlation between the students’ highest Gibbs’ reflection levels and their history-taking OSCE scores.ConclusionsRP, together with feedback, proved to be a useful technique to help fourth-year Thai medical students improve their reflection skills, enhance their medical knowledge, and improve patient history-taking skills. Further study with longer monitoring is required to further explore negative and positive influential factors affecting students’ achievement of better reflection performances.
Highlights
Reflective practice (RP) plays a crucial role in encouraging learners to think critically and consciously about their performances
One of the most popular theories related to RP is Gibbs’ reflective cycle, which represents a simplified process within the RP context and consists of six stages: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and action plan [3]
All fourth-year medical students participated in our study (n = 48)
Summary
Reflective practice (RP) plays a crucial role in encouraging learners to think critically and consciously about their performances. One of the most popular theories related to RP is Gibbs’ reflective cycle, which represents a simplified process within the RP context and consists of six stages: description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, and action plan [3] This method helps learners achieve a higher level in their thought processes and enhances their lifelong learning skills [4]. Some students might develop their capabilities independently [5] This process can be greatly enhanced through well-trained educators’ facilitation of their performances by using constructive feedback [6, 7]. RP learners develop better metacognition and lifelong learning skills associated with better long-term patient care [9,10,11] This method can improve leadership capacity and increase learners’ competency in non-biological domains, such as collaboration skills [12, 13]. Doctors who lack the ability to maintain their reflection skills and adjust them in real-life situations often have poorer insights into their performance than those with such skills [14]
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