The Benefits of Feed Forward and Authentic Assessment in Academia!

“Learners need endless feedback more than the need endless teaching” - Unknown

    As a nurse teacher, I will strive to create an educational environment where feedback is used as a catalyst for improvement, guiding students toward attaining high levels of clinical practice. This involves using authentic assessment and implementing the "feedforward" philosophy, which provides constructive feedback focused on future improvement. Authentic assessment evaluates students' abilities to transfer their knowledge and skills to realistic scenarios, thus capturing the complexities of actual nursing practice.                   This practice extends conventional assessment methods by emphasizing activities that simulate the problems nurses encounter in clinical practice. For example, using case studies enables students to integrate theoretical knowledge with practical application in the real world, thereby acquiring critical thinking and decision-making abilities (Kaduc, n.d.). As an instructional practice, I will include simulation-based assessments, where students interact with realistic patient simulations. Such simulations will need the students to exhibit skills such as patient assessment, clinical reasoning, and communication. Through replicating actual nursing practice environments, such assessments attempt to equip the students with what they must deal with in their prospective careers.

 The concept created by Marshall Goldsmith, also called   "feedforward," focuses on providing feedback to improve future performance instead of criticizing past behavior. Thus, with such an approach, students are motivated to look for areas of future improvement and integrate the knowledge and skills acquired into future projects (Archer, 2010). I will provide specific and direct recommendations through the debriefing process after assessments. An effective tactic the student uses in a simulation exercise can be highlighted, along with the suggestion of additional methods for future scenarios. This approach acknowledges current ability and provides a model for further development. 

    This entails assisting students in comprehending how they can implement changes in their subsequent assignments or tasks before submission. By creating a culture of feedforward, I aim to foster a positive and supportive learning environment where students view feedback as an opportunity for growth rather than criticism. This will allow them to become competent, reflective, and proactive nursing practitioners and improve patient care and clinical outcomes. 

To illustrate my vision of authentic assessment, consider the following poem:

They practice care, both heard and seen.
A patient’s voice, a silent plea,
Met with skill and empathy.

Each heartbeat traced, each breath observed,
Precision honed, instincts preserved.
Mistakes once made, now lessons learned,
Through trial and time, true wisdom earned.

No sterile sheets, no scripted lines,
But urgent calls and shifting signs.
Decisions swift, yet rooted deep,
In knowledge vast and promises keep.

For when they stand in duty’s light,
Beyond the labs, beyond the night,

-            Unknown

   Learning from past adversity allows them to channel their behavior toward healing. Students are equipped for the multidimensional nature of nursing by incorporating realistic situations into genuine assessment.

   I plan to practice a feedforward strategy by giving timely, precise, and constructive feedback following assessment, simulation, and clinical practice. For instance, rather than simply identifying mistakes in a student's patient assessment, I will also outline their strengths and make specific suggestions that would improve clinical reasoning and decision-making in similar situations in the future. In this way, students will become more confident and continually develop competence. Furthermore, I will implement formal debriefing sessions after simulations in which students can reflect upon their practice and receive constructive feedback for future practice. Electronic resources, including video analysis and electronic portfolios, will facilitate feedforward processes by enabling students to monitor their progress longitudinally and incorporate feedback into their clinical development.

    The sources mentioned here allow a closer review of the concepts illustrated and the possibilities of technology incorporation into providing feedback. Archer (2010) touches on several strategies relevant to authentic assessment within nurse training, such as practical illustrations and insightful debate (Designing Authentic Assessment: Strategies for Nurse Educators). Again, "Feedback in the Clinical Setting" talks about the importance of learning feedback, detailing issues, and making proposals for improvement of feedback practices within clinical education (Archer, 2010). By adopting genuine assessments alongside a feedforward approach, I hope to create an educational environment that measures current achievement and actively encourages future success.

 

References

Archer, J. C. (2010). State of the science in health professional education: Effective feedback. Medical Education, 44(1), 101-108. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03546.x

Kaduc, A. (n.d.). Week 2 - CAT and authentic assessment. Retrieved from https://alexandrakaduc.weebly.com/week-2---cat-and-authentic-assessment.html