Developing Students’ Feedback Literacy in Higher Education: Effect of a Training Program and Goal Orientation on Students’ Feedback Seeking Behaviour in Workplace Learning
Sonja Broerse1 & Martijn J. M. Leenknecht2
1 Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
2 HZ University of Applied Sciences, Vlissingen, The Netherlands

Several studies indicate discontent amongst students about feedback practices in higher education and medical practices (Noble & Hassell, 2008; Urquhart et al., 2014; Winstone et al., 2017), while we know from previous research that students’ understanding and perception of feedback determines whether feedback achieves its’ objective (Boud & Molloy, 2013). We need students to be actively involved in feedback uptake (Carless & Boud, 2018) and feedback seeking behaviour (Leenknecht et al., 2019), in order to make feedback practices effective. Key element is students’ feedback literacy (Carless & Boud, 2018), as students’ shortcoming in feedback literacy levels hampers feedback effectiveness in higher education. Current curriculum in higher education does not always appear to offer means for improving students’ understanding of their role in feedback processes (Noble et al., 2019b). Feedback literacy benefits students’ feedback engagement and feedback seeking behaviour (Noble et al., 2019b). Similarly, goal orientation antecedes feedback seeking behaviour (Leenknecht et al., 2019).
Building on previous research by Noble et al. (2019a, 2019b), the current study investigates the effect of feedback literacy training and goal orientation on students’ feedback seeking behaviour in workplace learning in a teacher training programme using a quasi-experimental research design. At a Dutch university of applied sciences an experimental group was subjected to a two part feedback literacy training, whilst the control group was not. Feedback seeking behaviour and goal orientation were measured before the first and after the last intervention. A manipulation check was executed to determine what students had learned. Two factorial between group analyses (ANOVA) were performed to investigate the effects. The experiment ends in December.