What Is My Next Step? School Students' Perceptions of Feedback

Feedback literature is dominated by claims of large effect sizes, yet there are remarkable levels of variability relating to the effects of feedback. The same feedback can be effective for one student but not another, and in one situation but not another. There is a need to better understand how students are receiving feedback and currently there is relatively little research on school students' perceptions of feedback. In contrast, current social constructivist and self-regulatory models of feedback see the learner as an active agent in receiving, interpreting, and applying feedback information. This paper aims to investigate school student perceptions of feedback through designing a student feedback perception questionnaire (SFPQ) based upon a conceptual model of feedback. The questionnaire was used to collect data about the helpfulness to learning of different feedback types and levels. Results demonstrate that the questionnaire partially affirms the conceptual model of feedback. Items pertaining to feed forward (improvement based feedback) were reported by students as most helpful to learning. Implications for teaching and learning are discussed, in regard to how students receive feedback.