How constructive is that feedback? Associations with undergraduates’ future time perspectives moderated by student characteristics’

Abstract

Beliefs about the future, instantiated as a learner’s future time perspective, have been largely overlooked in the research on the connection between feedback and motivation. Because feedback statements vary in their level of specificity and friendliness (a commonly reported distinction between peer-provided and instructor-provided feedback), we were interested in the interplay between such feedback characteristics and learners’ future time perspective. With 392 U.S. undergraduates, we investigated how future time perspective (specifically, its valence and connectedness) affected whether learners perceived as constructive feedback statements that varied in specificity and friendliness, and whether gender and academic discipline would influence these perceptions. Future time perspective connectedness was positively associated with perceptions of feedback constructiveness for specific statements but was negatively related to constructiveness for unspecific statements. Valence was positively correlated with feedback constructiveness for unspecific statements. Although no differences in academic discipline were found, gender effects emerged. Implications for peer feedback are discussed.