Constructive feedback can function as a reward: Students’ emotional profiles in reaction to feedback perception mediate associations with task interest

Background

Students need support when working on complex tasks such as writing. Reward-learning theories posit that verbal rewards, like feedback-depending on its design-can support students' extrinsic and intrinsic motivation. So far, empirical studies have focused on using praise feedback to foster extrinsic motivation. However, researchers have argued that fostering intrinsic compared to extrinsic motivation has more sustainable effects and that constructive feedback can also function as an intrinsic reward by supporting students’ knowledge acquisition.

Aims

We investigated whether constructive feedback that students perceive as useful can sustain triggered situational interest and support writing performance by being a rewarding experience, indicated by a positive emotional response to receiving feedback.

Method

We asked 1709 secondary students to write and revise a text after receiving constructive feedback designed to foster knowledge acquisition. To test whether the feedback worked as a reward (i.e., elicited a positive emotional reaction), we estimated a causal mediation model with perceived feedback usefulness as the predictor, latent profiles of students' emotional responses as the mediator, and students’ interest and revision performance change as the outcome.

Results

Students who perceived the feedback as useful showed a more positive interest change. As indicated by the indirect effects, the relation can be partially explained by students’ emotional reactions, especially when students perceived the feedback as highly useful. No relations were found for writing performance.

Conclusion

Our results suggest that constructive feedback that students perceive as highly useful for their knowledge acquisition can function as a constructive reward.