Leveraging the Power of Feedback for Student Motivation and Equity: An Evidence-Based and Practical Perspective
Leveraging the Power of Feedback for Student Motivation and Equity: An Evidence-Based and Practical Perspective
March 19 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT
Dr. Alison Koenka, Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Oklahoma
Description
Academic feedback–or messages provided to learners about their performance–is a powerful tool that instructors can leverage to boost student learning and motivation and to create more equitable college classrooms. High-quality feedback provides learners with valuable information about their current performance and guidance on how to improve. However, researchers have found that many students fail to engage with feedback or respond negatively to it, especially when it is negative or critical. Subsequently, feedback can either support or hinder students’ learning and motivation, as well as the overall rigor and equity of the classroom environment.
Dr. Alison Koenka will broaden our understanding of feedback, presenting it as a multi-level phenomenon that goes beyond comments on graded assignments. She will share research on how different forms of feedback shape students’ motivation and learning, and how students engage with feedback. The talk will conclude with actionable suggestions to enhance the effectiveness of feedback provided to students and to support students’ engagement with feedback.
About the Speaker
Dr. Alison Koenka is an Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Oklahoma. She holds a BA in Psychology from McGill University and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Duke University. Koenka completed her postdoctoral training in Educational Psychology at The Ohio State University. Her research explores students’ motivation in STEM across secondary school and higher education settings. Dr. Koenka’s lab pursues these interests through two interrelated lines of inquiry. First, she and her students investigate the motivational consequences of academic feedback, including spontaneous interactions occurring between teachers and students, grades and written feedback, and implicit, enduring feedback that often occurs at curriculum and/or policy levels (e.g., mathematics tracking). Second, her lab conducts work that centers on the motivational experiences of youth from understudied populations. This research has been funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, the American Educational Research Association, and the American Psychological Association.
Dr. Koenka was ranked as a top-producing early-career scholar in educational psychology journals from 2015-2021; she was also identified in 2024 as a Top-Cited Global Researcher by Stanford University and Elsevier Repository. Dr. Koenka is the 2025 recipient of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education Early Career Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Mentoring and is the 2024 recipient of the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education Pre-Tenure Faculty Award.