Promoting student engagement with feedback: insights from collaborative pedagogy and teacher feedback

Abstract

While much attention has been paid to student engagement in feedback research in academic writing across higher education, few studies have investigated the role of the teacher in promoting student engagement with feedback. This exploratory study examines the impact of teacher pedagogical approach and feedback practices on student engagement with feedback. The study was conducted at a Chinese university over a 16-week semester and analysed students’ written assignments, teacher feedback, and semi-structured interviews with the teacher and students. It is found that the teacher adopted a collaborative approach in his class that involved group writing and revising in response to detailed teacher feedback. Through this collaborative approach, the students were able to conduct a wide range of revision operations beyond the word level in their writing. The study shows that the majority of students espoused this collaborative approach because it effectively tapped into multiple dimensions of student engagement, increasing active behavioural engagement, promoting positive affective engagement, and encouraging deep cognitive engagement in the writing and revision process. The study concludes with pedagogical implications for academic writing and teacher feedback practices in higher education.