Embedding feedback literacy in the first year undergraduate physics programme

• Students do not always see feedback literacy as valuable unless it has a clear and immediate effect on grades.
• Non-credit-bearing sessions can be harder to prioritise, especially for students focused mainly on assessment outcomes.
• One-off sessions are not enough to change practice or attitudes in a sustained way.
• Feedback literacy is more effective when it is embedded repeatedly across the curriculum.
• Repeated “micro-messages” across modules help reinforce the importance of process, not just product.
• Staff need to model the behaviours they want students to adopt.
• A strong feedback literacy culture depends on consistent messages and alignment across teaching staff, not isolated interventions. 

The initiative was introduced in the first year of the Undergraduate Physics programme to build students’ feedback literacy early in their studies. It responded to evidence that many students were not engaging effectively with feedback, with some avoiding it altogether and lower-performing students being least likely to access it. The design was informed by literature on feedback literacy and growth mindset. Its aim was to help students see feedback as part of learning, manage emotional responses, and focus on improvement rather than grades alone. 

There has been no formal controlled evaluation of the intervention, so its effects cannot be directly attributed to the session alone. However, impact is reflected in whether students engage with and act on feedback, and staff have observed clear cases where students improve later laboratory reports by responding to earlier comments. More broadly, the intervention aims to strengthen a culture in which feedback is understood as a tool for learning, with existing data suggesting that students who engage with feedback tend to perform better. 

The intervention centred on a single feedback literacy session delivered early in the first term, before students received assessment feedback, so that they could develop productive ways of thinking about feedback before unhelpful habits formed. The session broadened students’ understanding of feedback by presenting it as information from multiple sources that can improve future performance, not just written comments from staff. It also addressed the emotional side of receiving feedback and introduced growth mindset to frame improvement as something developed through effort, reflection, and action. Finally, it encouraged students to think critically about AI as a possible source of feedback that can support learning processes rather than simply generate answers. 

• Emphasise that feedback includes anything that helps students improve, not just teacher comments.
• Address the emotional side of feedback and help students focus on learning, not just grades.
• Embed small, consistent feedback literacy messages across the curriculum rather than relying on one-off workshops.
• Encourage staff to reflect on whether their messages reinforce grades or promote learning and student ownership.
• Support student agency, self-monitoring, and reflection to build more independent learners.
• Do not let imperfect evaluation prevent implementation; small but sustained interventions can still help build a stronger culture of feedback literacy