Student reactions to teacher feedback in two Hong Kong secondary classrooms

This study investigates the reactions of students in two Hong Kong secondary classrooms to their teachers’ feedback, focusing particularly on the factors that might have influenced their reactions. Student data from questionnaires, checklists and protocols were triangulated with teacher data from interviews, classroom observations and feedback analysis to situate student reactions in their specific contexts. The results show that students, irrespective of proficiency level, wanted more written comments from teachers. The students of lower proficiency were less interested in error feedback than those of higher proficiency, though both groups preferred more explicit error feedback from teachers. Students did not understand all of the teacher feedback, which could be due to its illegibility, apart from other plausible factors not explored in the study. The results suggest that the teachers’ feedback, which was mostly teacher-centred, made students passive and dependent on teachers. The paper concludes that it is important for teachers to be aware of the impact of their feedback practices on student expectations and attitudes, which should be fed back to teachers to help them develop reflective and effective feedback practices.