Students' Responses to Diagnostic Feedback on their Self-Regulated Learning Skills: A Qualitative Study (Poster 31)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Friday 3:20 p.m.
  In Invited Poster Session: 2025 AERA Undergraduate Fellows Research Poster Fair

Abstract

Research on feedback in education is shifting from a focus on how it is delivered to how it is received, yet empirical studies on student response processes remain scarce. This study examines students’ responses to feedback on self-regulated learning (SRL) from DAACS, a free online diagnostic tool for assessing college readiness. The project aims to reveal: 1) students’ cognitive and affective responses to DAACS feedback on their SRL skills, and 2) how their responses align with those intended by the developers. Think-aloud protocols and retrospective interviews were conducted with undergraduate students as they completed the SRL assessment and verbalized their feedback processing. Phase 1 of the data analysis involves using inductive analysis to identify and categorize transcripts into themes related to responses to feedback. Phase 2 involves putting the themes into mental model flowcharts to illustrate students’ response processes.

Preliminary findings indicate that students focus on areas of interest or perceived strengths and weaknesses, favor video over text, and relate feedback to other experiences. They also recognize and explain results that contradict their self-perceptions. Ongoing data analysis has led to updates to the theoretical model, for example incorporating judgements/preferences and evaluation as distinct yet related aspects of internal processing.

Author

• Joseph M. Garofalo, University at Albany - SUNY