Agency development and valuing peer perspectives: lessons from an intervention to enhance STEM university students’ feedback literacy
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Hui, Luotong
Ippolito, Kate
Charalambous, Magda
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
In order for students to benefit from feedback, they must develop their feedback literacy. To investigate the extent to which informing students about feedback knowledge and scaffolding practice for making sense of feedback increases feedback literacy, we conducted a skills-based intervention study. The results showed that the intervention increased students’ feedback knowledge, that is, their understanding about the purpose of feedback and the need to engage with it proactively. However, the intervention did not increase participants’ feedback literacy to a statistically significant extent. This may be due to the centrality of learner agency in feedback literacy and lack of time for this complex construct to develop. Findings from post-intervention focus group interviews revealed variation in students’ understanding and agency in relation to engaging with feedback and the importance of including various opportunities to develop agency as part of feedback literacy training, including through peer perspective sharing. Cultural influences on feedback processes appeared to be less significant than anticipated. Instead, individual differences, such as personal interpretations of feedback and associated emotional responses, were more likely to create barriers, and should therefore be considered when developing feedback literacy. This paper offers suggestions for implementing more effective feedback literacy development opportunities, including those that emphasise building on a foundation of feedback knowledge and the role of peers and peer feedback. We propose that future studies should develop an integrative approach to feedback literacy training that acknowledges the complexity and time demands of agency development.
Date Issued
2025-09-30
Date Acceptance
2025-09-01
Citation
Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal, 2025, 13
ISSN
2167-4779
Publisher
University of Calgary
Journal / Book Title
Teaching & Learning Inquiry: The ISSOTL Journal
Volume
13
Copyright Statement
Copyright (c) 2025 Luotong Hui, Kate Ippolito, Magda Charalambous. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
License URL
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2025-09-30