Students’ mathematical feedback processes using a digital curriculum resource: a qualitative perspective

Abstract This qualitative case study investigates how automated feedback from a widely accessible digital curriculum resource influences students’ mathematics learning. Drawing on a dialogic feedback framework, the study analyzes students’ feedback processes in an ecologically valid learning context. Grounded in a sociocultural perspective, the framework integrates Carless’ dialogic conceptualization of feedback, Shute’s feedback typology, and Vergnaud’s scheme theory. Eight eighth-graders from a German secondary school worked individually on percentage problems at home, video-recorded via online conferencing. Data included screen recordings and think-aloud protocols, which were analyzed using qualitative text analysis. Results reveal large individual differences in feedback processes—students vary in when and how they access feedback messages and how they make sense of them. Successfully solving a task after feedback does not always indicate understanding; in some cases, feedback aided procedural completion without conceptual insight. The effectiveness depended on the alignment between task design, feedback message content, and students’ actual difficulties. The study concludes that qualitative analysis of feedback processes with digital technologies in ecologically valid settings is necessary to target specific student difficulties and promote learning.