The intervening role of assessment literacy in relationships between feedback literacy and self-regulation

The intervening role of assessment literacy in relationships between feedback literacy and self-regulation

Feedback literate students are more likely to generate internal feedback to monitor their progress towards learning goals and they may therefore exhibit greater self-regulatory skills. However, any relationships between feedback literacy (FL) and self-regulation (SR) may in fact be indirectly explained by assessment literacy (AL) or dependent on individuals having high levels of AL. Therefore, the current study investigated whether AL mediates and/or moderates any relationships between FL and SR. Questionnaire scales measuring FL, AL and SR were completed by 298 undergraduate students across multiple disciplines. Mediation analyses revealed that the relationship between feedback utility (i.e. the perception that feedback will be useful) and SR was fully mediated by the assessment for learning aspect of AL (i.e. the ability to use assessment tasks to augment or monitor learning). Moderation analyses indicated that the positive relationship between feedback social awareness (i.e. feedback being used to help individuals understand how they are perceived by others) and SR was only present when individuals had greater levels of the assessment for learning aspect of AL; this relationship was not present when scores on this aspect of AL were average or low. Findings are discussed in terms of how some relationships between FL and SR are either explained by AL or are dependent on greater levels of AL, but most aspects of FL still directly relate to SR.