Student perceptions of assessment feedback: a critical scoping review and call for research

The potential of feedback to enhance students’ performance on a task, strategies, or learning has long been recognized in the literature. However, feedback needs to be utilized by a learner to realize its potential. Hence, examining student perceptions of feedback and their links to effective uptake of feedback has been the focus of much recent feedback research. This paper presents a critical scoping review of the feedback perceptions literature. The review discusses the methods employed by 164 studies published between 1987 and 2018 and synthesizes the main findings across this body of literature. Lacking theoretical frameworks, repetitiveness (not replicability) of studies, and methodological problems observed among the reviewed have resulted in somewhat disappointing conclusions. Based on the findings, we present a framework for future investigations into student perceptions of feedback and suggest several avenues for the future of the field.