Student justice perceptions following assignment feedback

Abstract

In higher education, students are exposed to regular feedback about their performance, and a prominent aspect of students' attention to feedback concerns the extent to which grades are consistent with what a student has expected to receive. Any discrepancies that arise can result in negative justice perceptions, which research has shown are associated with negative cognitive, emotional and behavioral consequences. However the extent of, and consequences of, these negative justice perceptions within the learning process have gone largely unexplored. This study investigates the relationship between expectation/performance discrepancies, justice perceptions, student satisfaction and self-efficacy. In particular, we found an interaction between the grade received and negative justice perceptions; poor performers with negative justice perceptions were more likely to have lower subsequent self-efficacy and satisfaction than those who did not have injustice perceptions. However, self-efficacy rose for those who had negative justice perceptions if they also received moderate to high performance feedback. The results reflect the complexity of cognitive and behavioral responses to performance feedback. Implications for grading and recommendations for reducing injustice perceptions are discussed.

Engaging students with feedback through adaptive release

“…The approach encouraged greater engagement with feedback, contrary to Nesbit and Burton's (2006) description of usual feedback practice where students are mostly concerned with grades. Students also remembered their feedback longer when using this approach.…”

“…Some students in the study were more concerned about getting their grades than learning from their feedback. Nesbit and Burton (2006) comment that students place so much importance upon the grade that they become less likely to engage with feedback if they feel the grade is unjust. Student preoccupation with grades can have a negative impact on both learning and motivation (Black and Wiliam, 1998).…”

Turkish Secondary Education Students’ Perceptions of Justice and Their Experiences of Unjustice

“…In his study on Muslim university students in Canada, Erkan (2013) indicates that students attach importance to equity in justice. Nesbit & Burton (2006) indicate that if students have concerns about the distribution of justice, they will be less satisfied with the results of assessment. Another example of that is free clothing implementation.…”

Using technology to encourage student engagement with feedback: a literature review

“…It is claimed that students are only concerned with their grades (Wojtas 1998;Nesbit and Burton 2006), see feedback as a means to justify the grade (Price and O'Donovan 2008;Price et al 2010) or only read the qualitative comments if the quantitative mark is outside of their expectations (Duncan 2007). Some authors have argued that student disengagement with feedback is based on sceptical or anecdotal evidence from tutors (Carless 2006;Higgins, Hartley, and Skelton 2002;Weaver 2006), and Burke (2009, 41) wonders whether "students interpret the term 'feedback' literally and use it only to look back on work they have completed, and are not aware or able to use tutor comments to 'feed-forward' and contribute to their ongoing development".…”