Feedback Literacy as a Dimension of Teacher Professional Development: Exploring in Service Teachers’ Capacity to Seek, Interpret, and Use Feedback
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63228/jppgd.v3i1.128Keywords:
Feedback literacy, teacher professional development, interpretive phenomenological analysis, feedback seeking, professional noticingAbstract
Feedback literacy has emerged as a significant construct in higher education research, yet its application to in‑service teachers’ professional learning remains underexplored. This study investigates how practising secondary teachers seek, interpret, and use feedback within their everyday professional contexts, and how these capacities contribute to their professional growth. Drawing on interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA), semi‑structured interviews were conducted with 12 in‑service secondary teachers (3–10 years’ experience) across three phases: narrative elicitation, critical incident reflection, and longitudinal follow‑up. Analysis yielded three superordinate themes: (1) “making feedback actionable” – describing the interpretive work required to translate evaluative comments into pedagogical adjustments; (2) “relational conditions for seeking feedback” – highlighting trust, vulnerability and collegial safety as prerequisites for proactive feedback engagement; and (3) “feedback as reflective fuel” – revealing how feedback loops sustain or disrupt teachers’ professional noticing and self‑directed improvement. Findings extend Carless and Boud’s (2018) feedback literacy framework from student to teacher professional contexts, proposing that teacher feedback literacy comprises four intersecting capacities: evaluative discernment, relational positioning, temporal integration, and self‑regulatory agency. The study contributes to professional development literature by demonstrating that feedback literacy is not merely a skill to be taught, but a relational and dispositional capacity that develops through sustained opportunities for dialogic engagement with multiple feedback sources. Implications for continuing professional development design include structured feedback dialogue protocols, peer observation with interpretive scaffolding, and institutional cultures that normalise feedback‑seeking as professional practice rather than deficit remediation.
Downloads
References
Afrilyasanti, R., Suharyadi, & Wijayanti, R. (2025). Developing feedback literacy in in service teachers: Advancing self regulated learning and professional growth. Teacher Development, 1–19. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02607476.2025.2584019
Ashford, S. J., & Cummings, L. L. (1983). Feedback as an individual resource: Personal strategies of creating information. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 32(3), 370–398.
Boud, D., & Dawson, P. (2023). What feedback literate teachers do: An empirically derived competency framework. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 48(2), 158–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2021.1910928
Butterfield, L. D., Borgen, W. A., Amundson, N. E., & Maglio, A. S. T. (2005). Fifty years of the critical incident technique: 1954–2004 and beyond. Qualitative Research, 5(4), 475–497.
Canaran, Ö., Bayram, I., & Elmas, B. (2023). An online training for increasing language teachers’ awareness of feedback literacy based on the Developing Engagement with Feedback Toolkit (DEFT). International Journal of Progressive Education, 19(1), 154–169. https://doi.org/10.29329/ijpe.2023.517.10
Carless, D. (2022). From teacher transmission of information to student feedback literacy: Activating the learner role in feedback processes. Active Learning in Higher Education, 23(2), 143–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787420945845
Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: Enabling uptake of feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(8), 1315–1325. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354
Carless, D., & Winstone, N. (2020). Teacher feedback literacy and its interplay with student feedback literacy. Teaching in Higher Education, 28(1), 150–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1782372
Entwistle, L. L., & Rees Davies, L. (2025). Teachers’ perceptions of cognitive coaching: Impacts on self efficacy, improvement and growth. Coaching, 19(1), 106–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521882.2025.2570687
Görtzen, J., Stollman, S. H. M., Schellings, G. L. M., Vermunt, J. D., & Nieveen, N. (2025). Promoting students’ reflection through process oriented feedback: Teachers’ conceptions, practices and learning needs. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 86, Article 101483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2025.101483
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112.
Lasky, S. (2005). A sociocultural approach to understanding teacher identity, agency and professional vulnerability in a context of secondary school reform. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21(8), 899–916.
Liu, W. (2025). Good or bad visits? An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the experience of supervised college teachers in Central China. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 12, Article 1280. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05655-5
Molloy, E., Boud, D., & Henderson, M. (2020). Developing a learning centred framework for feedback literacy. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 45(4), 527–540. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2019.1667954
R Discovery. (2025). Feedback literacy research articles. R Discovery Researcher Platform. https://discovery.researcher.life
Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2022). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research (2nd ed.). Sage.
To, J., Tan, K., & Lim, M. (2023). From error focused to learner centred feedback practices: Unpacking the development of teacher feedback literacy. Teaching and Teacher Education, 131, Article 104185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104185
van Der Baan, N. A., Hennemann, T. P. J. N. B., Stalmeijer, R. E., Dolmans, D. H. J. M., & Sehlbach, C. (2025). Teachers’ continuing professional development: Using student evaluations to start a dialogue. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2025.2584136
van Es, E. A., & Sherin, M. G. (2021). Expanding on the conceptualization of teacher noticing. ZDM – Mathematics Education, 53(1), 17–27.
Winstone, N. E., Nash, R. A., Parker, M., & Rowntree, J. (2017). Supporting learners’ agentic engagement with feedback: A systematic review and a taxonomy of recipience processes. Educational Psychologist, 52(1), 17–37.
Xu, Y., & Carless, D. (2017). ‘Only true friends could be brutally honest’: Cognitive scaffolding and social affective support in teacher feedback literacy. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 42(7), 1082–1094.
