Feedback Influence on Students’ Emotions and Progress: Case of Kuwaiti University Students

Abstract

Feedback is an essential component of the assessment process. It has a significant effect not only on the emotions of the students, but also on their progress and work development. The gap that this study is attempting to bridge is how students’ emotions towards feedback can change their behaviour in development and progress. This study investigated the influence of different types of feedback on the emotions of Kuwaiti students through conducting a qualitative research. Six students were interviewed (3 males and 3 females) through semi-structured interviews. Analysis of the data was done through thematic analysis. The results showed that although negative emotions can be triggered in the students by negative feedback (such as disappointment, anger and sadness), the participants thought that these negative emotions are also vital for progress. The participants thought that these negative emotions can make them motivated to improve themselves and achieve better achievements in the future. On the other hand, the study found that positive feedback is also as important and it makes the students have positive emotions which make them want to continue, as they know that they are on the right track. The way feedback is given also seems to be important. For example, the students prefer detailed and dialogic feedback. However, the participants agreed that the experience of the teacher's about giving feedback is important if there are many details (since an inexperienced teacher might provide irrelevant feedback). Finally, the study recommended that educational institutions and systems need to make more formative assessments in order to make dialogic feedback more feasible. Further, it also recommends that all teachers need to have some training in feedback literacy in order to make providing feedback as effective as possible.