Formative feedback to improve pharmacology learning: Proposed principles and guidelines for effective practice.

AIMS: To learn effectively, students need timely, specific, actionable feedback-known as formative feedback-on what and how well they are learning and on how to improve further. Providing effective feedback to help students learn pharmacology is a complex task. Currently, pharmacology educators lack evidence-based guidelines for effective, efficient practice. This article aims to fill that gap. First, it briefly defines formative assessment and feedback and explains how they can affect student learning. Second, it offers pharmacology teachers research-based principles and practical guidelines for using formative feedback to improve learning. These principles and guidelines may also be useful in training generative artificial intelligence programs to support formative feedback provision. Third, it aims to stimulate interest in, use of, experimentation with and further research on formative feedback in pharmacology education. METHODS: Relevant literature was identified from peer-reviewed resources in higher education, medical and health sciences education, pharmacy education and pharmacology education on effective practice of formative assessment and formative feedback published in English between 2000 and 2025. RESULTS: Although a substantial body of empirical research exists on formative feedback in higher education, relatively less has been published in medical and health sciences education. In pharmacology education, there are even fewer relevant publications, making a formal systematic literature review unviable. CONCLUSIONS: Students need formative feedback to learn. Teachers need guidance to elicit and provide that feedback effectively and efficiently. Pharmacology teachers and learners can benefit from practical principles and guidelines for formative feedback practice based on the most current, relevant research available.