The relationship between college student feedback orientation and classroom engagement

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study explored the relationship between the four dimensions of students’ feedback orientation (i.e., utility, retention, confidentiality, and sensitivity) and the four dimensions of students’ classroom engagement (i.e., silent in-class, oral in-class, thinking about course content, and out-of-class) using the tenets of Feedback Intervention Theory (FIT) as a guide. Participants were 208 undergraduate students enrolled in a variety of introductory communication courses at a large mid-Atlantic university. It was found that varying combinations of students’ feedback orientation influence students’ engagement, providing further support for FIT. Specifically, feedback utility was positively related to all four dimensions of student engagement. Furthermore, feedback confidentiality was negatively related to oral in-class behaviors. Future research should continue to examine the influence of instructional feedback on students’ classroom engagement.