The Effect of Structured Feedback on Performance: the Role of Attitude and Perceived Usefulness

Abstract

In higher education, university students need to be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills for their future workplace. Companies provide opportunities for students to participate as trainee consultants in innovation-related projects as a form of experiential learning. We designed a quasi-experimental study to investigate how supervisors’ structured feedback can influence students’ learning and project performance. We recruited 28 business school final year undergraduates who formed teams of four students either by themselves or with the help of the school. We randomly assigned three teams with 12 students to the treatment group and four teams of 16 students to the control group. In the treatment group, company supervisors were asked to provide structured written feedback for the treatment group using structured feedback forms, which focus students’ attention on task level, process level, and self-regulation level at three project milestone stages. In the control group, students received feedback from company supervisors without any feedback form. At the end of this project, a survey was conducted to measure students’ attitudes toward feedback in supporting learning and their perceived usefulness of company supervisors’ feedback. The results show that company supervisors’ structured feedback positively affected students’ overall project performance in presentation and report, and students’ positive attitudes toward feedback and perceived usefulness of company supervisor’s structured feedback are positively related to students’ report performance.