Examining the relationships between feedback orientation and learning-related achievement emotions

Although teacher feedback is essential to student learning outcomes, students’ cognitive and emotional processes involved in perceiving and interpreting feedback remain understudied. Based on Pekrun’s Control-Value theory, perceptions of one’s capability (control) and usefulness (value) influence students’ academic emotions. This study examined how students’ four aspects of feedback perceptions/feedback orientations influence their positive emotions (joy, hope and pride) and negative (hopelessness, boredom, shame, anger and anxiety) in learning. The four feedback orientations are feedback self-efficacy (perceived capability to use feedback), feedback social awareness (perceived social value of feedback), feedback accountability (perceived responsibility in seeking feedback) and feedback utility (perceived usefulness of feedback). This study tested whether the four feedback orientations are associated with learning- related academic emotions. A total of 112 Filipino university students (Female n=87, 77%) completed the Feedback Orientation Scale and the Learning-related Academic Emotions Questionnaire. The results showed the four feedback orientations are positively correlated with joy and negatively correlated with anxiety and shame. A further path analysis revealed that among the four feedback orientations, feedback self-efficacy appears the strongest predictor of positive emotions. The results suggest that promoting students’ feedback self-efficacy in using their teachers’ feedback might be essential in fostering positive emotions in students’ learning experiences. Copyright © 2020 International Conference on Learning and Teaching.