Diagnostic Feedback in Formal Educational Settings

Diagnostic feedback refers to the type of feedback that provides information on the strengths and weaknesses of students’ mastery knowledge and skills and learning process at a certain point of learning. The main purpose of diagnostic feedback is to inform the learning and instructional adjustments on content focus and approaches. Diagnostic feedback has the potential to contain critical characteristics of effective feedback practice as laid out by scholars such as Carol Evans and David Boud: (a) to feed forward on and support future learning and (b) to facilitate student agency in learning.

Diagnostic feedback supports a constructive approach to learning and has been found to promote learning achievement and motivation. Convenient administration, easy access and use, and heightened comprehensibility are the key to realizing the educational ...