Beyond ‘doing time’: investigating the concept of student engagement with feedback

Feedback on students’ assignments may be comprehensive and well-constructed as a result of careful thought from tutors trying to identify and address students’ needs. However, feedback’s utility ultimately depends on the way students engage with it. ‘Doing time’ by complying with a norm of collecting, but then only skim-reading, feedback is a long way from the ‘mindful’ engagement associated with reflection, interpretation, deepening understanding and changes in later behaviour. This article argues that the literature’s traditional focus on experimental studies of feedback attributes (whilst ignoring students’ engagement) is misplaced, particularly given the methodological problems and inconsistent findings associated with these studies. These limitations suggest the need for an alternative line of enquiry. In this article, we develop a conceptual framework intended to illuminate the process of student engagement with feedback. We further propose a research agenda which can convey the variety of student experiences and generate analytic insights about students’ evolving engagement as a result of multiple feedback encounters in an educational setting. We suggest that this research agenda can lead to policies and practices to enhance student engagement with feedback, which may build students’ sense of responsibility and ownership for their learning.