Student justice perceptions following assignment feedback

Abstract

In higher education, students are exposed to regular feedback about their performance, and a prominent aspect of students’ attention to feedback concerns the extent to which grades are consistent with what a student has expected to receive. Any discrepancies that arise can result in negative justice perceptions, which research has shown are associated with negative cognitive, emotional and behavioral consequences. However the extent of, and consequences of, these negative justice perceptions within the learning process have gone largely unexplored. This study investigates the relationship between expectation/performance discrepancies, justice perceptions, student satisfaction and self‐efficacy. In particular, we found an interaction between the grade received and negative justice perceptions; poor performers with negative justice perceptions were more likely to have lower subsequent self‐efficacy and satisfaction than those who did not have injustice perceptions. However, self‐efficacy rose for those who had negative justice perceptions if they also received moderate to high performance feedback. The results reflect the complexity of cognitive and behavioral responses to performance feedback. Implications for grading and recommendations for reducing injustice perceptions are discussed.