AI-enhanced student conceptions of feedback: A PLS-SEM model of self-efficacy and self-regulation in EFL writing
TL;DR
The results indicate that what students do with feedback matters more than the source from which it originates, and that self-efficacy is the pivotal mechanism translating feedback experience into self-regulated learning.
Abstract
Feedback is a core mechanism of formative assessment, yet its effect on learning depends on how students conceive of and act upon it. This study tests an AI-enhanced student conceptions of feedback model in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing, relating six feedback conceptions to academic self-efficacy and self-regulation. Survey responses from 300 undergraduate students at a state university in Indonesia were analysed with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using 5,000 bootstrap subsamples. The measurement model met every reliability and validity criterion: outer loadings ranged from 0.743 to 0.888, composite reliability from 0.857 to 0.931 and average variance extracted from 0.609 to 0.750, while the Fornell-Larcker criterion, cross-loadings and HTMT ratios all confirmed discriminant validity. All seven structural paths were significant. Active use of AI feedback was the strongest antecedent of self-efficacy, followed by enjoyment, whereas ignoring feedback exerted a significant negative effect. Self-efficacy in turn strongly predicted self-regulation and accounted for 43.5% of its variance. The results indicate that what students do with feedback matters more than the source from which it originates, and that self-efficacy is the pivotal mechanism translating feedback experience into self-regulated learning.