Effects of Temporary Mark Withholding on Academic Performance

Abstract
"Although feedback engagement is important for learning, students often do not engage with provided feedback to inform future assignments. One factor for low feedback uptake is the easy access to grades. Thus, systematically delaying the grade release in favour of providing feedback first – temporary mark withholding – may be a possible approach to increase students’ engagement with feedback. We tested the hypothesis that temporary mark withholding would have positive effects on (a) future academic performance (Exp 1 & 2) and (b) feedback engagement (Exp 2) in authentic Psychology university settings. For Experiment 1, 116 Year 2 students were randomly assigned to either a Grade-before-feedback or Feedback-before-grade condition for their report in semester 1 and performance was measured on a similar assessment in semester 2. In Experiment 2, a Year 3 student cohort (t) was provided with feedback on their lab report before marks were released in semester 1 (mark withholding group, N = 97) and compared to the previous Year 3 cohort (t-1) where individual feedback and grades were released simultaneously (historical control group, N = 90). Using this multi-methodological approach, we reveal positive effects of temporary mark withholding on future academic performance and students’ feedback engagement in authentic Higher Education settings. Practical implications are discussed."

摘要：尽管反馈参与对于学习至关重要，然而学生往往未能积极参与所提供的反馈以指导未来的作业。反馈接受度低的一个因素是成绩的便捷获取。因此，系统性地推迟成绩发布，优先提供反馈——即暂时保留成绩——可能是一种提高学生对反馈参与度的可行方法。本研究旨在验证暂时保留成绩对（a）未来学术表现（实验1与2）以及（b）反馈参与度（实验2）在真实的心理学大学环境中的积极影响。在实验1中，116名二年级学生被随机分配到成绩先于反馈或反馈先于成绩的条件组，以评估他们在第一学期的报告表现，并在第二学期进行相似评估以衡量其表现。在实验2中，一个三年级学生群体（t）在第一学期成绩发布前收到了关于其实验室报告的反馈（成绩保留组，N = 97），并与前一个三年级群体（t-1）进行了比较，后者则同时发布了个人反馈和成绩（历史对照组，N = 90）。通过采用多方法学途径，本研究揭示了在真实的大学教育环境中，暂时保留成绩对学生的未来学术表现和反馈参与度的积极影响。此外，还讨论了其实际应用意义。