Procedural feedback lock-in in laboratory education: a micro–meso–macro analysis of feedback practices

Abstract

Feedback is increasingly conceptualised as a dialogic and socio-culturally embedded process; however, little is known about how feedback practices operate across structural levels in laboratory-based higher education contexts. This study investigates how feedback is enacted across micro-, meso-, and macro-level dimensions of feedback culture in undergraduate chemistry laboratory courses within a Kazakhstani university. A qualitative case study design was employed, combining naturalistic classroom observations and semi-structured interviews. Data were collected from three laboratory instructors and 40 undergraduate students across twelve observed laboratory sessions (approximately 24 contact hours), supplemented by interviews with 3 instructors and 3 students. Observation and interview data were analysed using a hybrid deductive–inductive thematic approach guided by feedback literacy frameworks. Findings indicate that feedback was frequent but predominantly enacted at the micro level as immediate procedural correction supporting task completion and laboratory safety. Meso-level feedback processes such as reflection, feedforward, and continuity across sessions were weakly structured, while macro-level structural support for feedback was limited. These cross-level conditions produced a stable configuration conceptualised as procedural feedback lock-in, whereby corrective feedback becomes normalised despite pedagogical intentions toward developmental learning. The study contributes to feedback culture scholarship by extending feedback literacy research into laboratory-based STEM education and offering analytically transferable insights for strengthening feedback design in practice-intensive higher education environments.