Advancing Feedback Research in Educational Psychology: Insights into Feedback Processes and Determinants of Effectiveness
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Feedback is widely recognized as a key mechanism in educational psychology, shaping learn-ing through cognitive, motivational, and emotional processes. Despite a rich body of research, core questions remain regarding when feedback is effective, why it works, and for whom it fos-ters meaningful learning. To examine the psychological and contextual mechanisms underlying feedback effectiveness, the studies included in this issue draw on diverse methodologies, in-cluding controlled experiments, longitudinal tracking in school settings, and digital trace anal-yses from authentic learning platforms. Central themes include the role of learner characteris-tics in feedback reception, the emotional and motivational dimensions of feedback processing, the impact of design and delivery features, and the reciprocal dynamics between feedback pro-viders and receivers. What emerges across these contributions is a view of feedback as a dia-logic and interpretive process, embedded within broader sociocultural and instructional sys-tems. Insights from neuroscience, digital learning environments, and achievement motivation research further advance theorizing on feedback processes and point toward new directions for empirically grounded, interdisciplinary inquiry. Building on these insights and informed by re-cent theoretical and empirical developments, we offer a model that conceptualizes feedback as a multilayered process—shaped by individual, contextual, and social dynamics, and unfolding across cognitive, emotional, and motivational dimensions. This model captures the complexity of feedback interactions and highlights how feedback can support learners’ ongoing develop-ment, both in terms of immediate learning outcomes and longer-term academic development. We outline how such an integrative perspective is necessary for developing feedback practices that are more targeted, responsive, and impactful for lasting educational growth.
