Unlocking Student Potential: Who Benefits from Performance Feedback?

Relative performance feedback is the practice of presenting an individual's performance data, such as rankings, averages, or percentiles, directly against that of their peers in order to foster motivation. The influence of relative feedback on student performance, however, is debated in education. Some studies suggest that letting students know where they rank among their peers may improve academic performance, while other studies show that learning that their grades are better than they expected may reduce their effort. In a new study, researchers from Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid, conducted a randomized controlled trial involving 386 undergraduate students. After the midterm exam, students in the experimental group were given class ranks, while the control group was given only grades.

Results showed that the experimental group final exam scores increased by 0.41 points on a scale of 0 to 10. Interestingly, the most significant benefit was among students who falsely believed their grades were higher than they actually were. Students who held over-optimistic beliefs about their academic standing gained +0.67 points following the feedback intervention. However for students with accuracte self-assesments, the intervention's effect was statistically indistinguishable from zero (-0.14) while students who were overly pessimistic saw a negative point estimate (-0.43). In general, the researchers found that knowing class rank was particularly beneficial for female students, students with low baseline scores, and students who did not receive additional tutoring. The researchers conclude that relative performance feedback appears to improve outcomes for lower-performing learners.

StepUp Note

This research helps us understand how objective feedback may or may not motivate a student’s learning. Overall, students who are over-confident about their learning ability benefit most from having objective feedback; they can be motivated to try harder. However, students who lack confidence may in fact also put in less effort when objective feedback supports their own negative self-evaluation. StepUp measures success by daily practice (puzzle badges), sustained effort, and ability to match some of each exercise. When we look at sustained, self-direction attention we see that “nothing succeeds like predicting success!”

Note by Nancy W Rowe, MS, CCC/A