Successful Doctoral Training in Nursing and Health Sciences by Debra Jackson & Patricia M. Davidson & Kim Usher

Author:Debra Jackson & Patricia M. Davidson & Kim Usher
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030879464
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Recognise the supervisor and student factors influencing how feedback is delivered and received

Understand feedback as a reciprocal, dynamic, and iterative process

5.1 The Importance of Feedback in Doctoral Supervision

Providing regular, quality, and constructive feedback is essential to effective supervision and to student progress, success, and growth; however, there is little discussion about feedback at the doctoral level. Research findings suggest wide interpretation of what constitutes appropriate feedback for doctoral students and highlights student feedback as an unproblematised and largely taken-for-granted aspect of doctoral supervision (Jackson et al. 2021). It is important to talk about feedback and its role in doctoral studies very early in the relationship with students and talk about the nature and purpose of feedback and feedback as a two-way street and explore preferred ways for individual students to receive feedback. Differences in perception around feedback are a common cause of dissatisfaction and frustration on the part of both students and supervisors.

Understanding and employing feedforward, defined as feedback that “directs the author forward to the next level of development” (Carter and Kumar 2016:76), can be very useful for students to guide future work and progress as they take the next steps forward. However, many students take the term feedback quite literally and negatively and consider it only in relation to work already done. This is where the importance of understanding the concept of feeding forward is so important . Comment on work in draft or already done provides a means of feeding forward and signposting issues to be carried into future work.

Ideally, in the context of doctoral training, feedback results in intellectual advancement, progression, and enhanced quality of the work. However, in reality, the process of feedback can be fraught and difficult (Jackson et al. 2021). In some situations, feedback (though provided with the aim of being helpful and constructive) results in students feeling disempowered and discouraged, therefore having the opposite effect to what was intended. When people feel criticised or critiqued, they can experience a range of emotions that can range between feeling intellectually challenged and personally offended (Jackson et al. 2009).

How the feedback is perceived is part of who we are and what we bring to the relationship. For some people, critique is hard to accept, and the emotion blocks the message that is being conveyed , meaning the student loses the value of what is being offered. The thing to remember with feedback is that it is not personal – feedback is offered as a way of encouraging deep learning and intellectual growth. It is a way of receiving information that can help with subsequent writing and research activities (Carter and Kumar 2016).

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