A small longitudinal study finds different feedback-literacy signals across methods

Updated Sep 10, 2026

Kurt Coppens, Greet Langie, Naomi Winstone and Lynn Van Den Broeck’s 2026 study asks how feedback literacy develops during undergraduate engineering education. The study offers a caution about interpreting evidence from a single measure.

Findings and limits

The mixed-method study followed students across three undergraduate years using the Feedback Orientation Scale, reflective logs and interviews. Attrition left seven students in the final longitudinal analyses.

The scale did not show growth, while interviews and logs suggested positive changes associated with reflection and characteristics of feedback. The authors also report no statistically significant correlation between feedback orientation and academic achievement.

These results do not prove that a scale is generally invalid, that learning improved without being detected, or that feedback literacy has no relationship with achievement. The small final sample and differing forms of evidence matter.

A practical review question

Our recommendation is to define the question before selecting a measure. Are you asking whether students understand comments, seek clarification, apply advice or improve later work? Different evidence may be needed for each.

Open-text feedback analysis can organise students’ accounts of those experiences. Pair it with appropriately collected evidence of feedback use before making claims about development. A more positive description is not itself proof of improved performance.

FAQ

Should universities abandon survey scales?

No. This study supports examining what each method captures, with attention to sample size and context. It does not settle the validity of survey measurement.

Does a non-significant correlation establish no relationship?

No. It reports what this analysis detected, not proof that the underlying relationship is absent.

Reference

Kurt Coppens, Greet Langie, Naomi Winstone and Lynn Van Den Broeck (2026). Tracking student feedback literacy: a longitudinal study from the perspective of feedback orientation. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.

Correction, 7 September 2026: clarified that seven students remained in the final longitudinal analyses, qualified the measurement interpretation.