Peer Assessment and Feedback Policy

PURPOSE
To outline the rationale and requirements for peer assessment and feedback to medical student on their performance.

AUDIENCE
All medical students, faculty, and staff

LCME STANDARD
9.7 Formative Assessment and Feedback  

POLICY

  1. Formative feedback is essential for students’ professional development. 
  2. Self and peer assessments provide feedback to students on their interpersonal communication, teamwork and commitment to the process of self-directed learning and professionalism skills which can otherwise be challenging to evaluate. 
  3. Peers working in a group setting over the course of an academic year serve as a valuable resource in the assessment of professionalism, interpersonal communication, teamwork, and commitment to the process of self-directed learning.
  4. Through this process, students will learn how to provide and process constructive feedback regarding professionalism, interpersonal communication, teamwork, and commitment to the process of self-directed learning.

PROCEDURE

  1. Once a year during the pre-clerkship years, students will assess each member of their problem-based learning group while simultaneously completing one of their self-assessment forms, that measure work habits, interactions with other students and interpersonal communication, teamwork, and commitment to the process of self-directed learning. They will also provide narrative comments describing their own and their peers' past performance and opportunities for growth. 
  2. Students will receive a copy of their self-assessment and aggregated anonymized peer assessments to review. 
  3. The self-assessment and peer assessments will also be made available to the problem-based learning facilitators, Director of Medical Student Professionalism (DMSP) and the students’ academic coaches.
  4. The identity of the assessors will be anonymous to their peers but will be available to faculty. 
  5. PBL facilitators will synthesize the ratings and comments provided for their formative meeting with individual students. The PBL facilitator will help each student reflect on and process peer feedback and develop a learning plan for professional growth and development. 
  6. The DMSP will meet with an assessor if the assessor’s assessment of a peer is remarkably different from other assessors for that peer or if there are inappropriate comments. The purpose of this is to explore the outlier assessment and assist the assessor in providing appropriate feedback if needed. 

RESPONSIBILITY
Course Directors

REFERENCES
Liaison Committee on Medical Education, Structure and Function of a Medical School - Standards for Accreditation of Medical Education Programs Leading to the MD Degree

RELATED POLICY/POLICIES
Formative Assessment Policy
Professionalism Policy

POLICY OWNER
Committee on Educational Policy

REVIEWED AND APPROVED BY
Associate Dean of Curriculum and Medical Education
Committee on Educational Policy*
Curriculum Steering Subcommittee
Director of Medical Student Professionalism
Pre-Clerkship Curriculum Manager

REVIEWED DATE and REVIEW CYCLE
July 2023, 2-year cycle

* indicates the Policy Owner