The Relationship Between Extrovert/Introvert Attributes and Feedback on Students' Achievements

Introduction

This study examines the influence of a variety of feedback methods directed at the student’s motivational and emotional elements in a distance learning environment. Two types of feedback were employed: cognitive feedback relating to the curriculum and non-cognitive feedback relating to the student’s motivational elements. In addition, what sets this study apart is, among other things, the use of an alternative perspective to study the effects of different types of feedback and personality attributes.

The study model inspects personality attributes – along with feedback factors – as independent variables, namely, variables that might affect learning outcomes. The author speculated that there would be a difference between the introvert and extrovert persona with regard to the most effective feedback for each individual and the study product: achievements, satisfaction and perseverance.

The literature review focuses on the variables on which the study is based – feedback and personality variables (extrovert/introvert) – as a basis for understanding the elements present in every student-teacher interaction, and as a background to understanding the rationale behind the study, its purposes and speculated benefits.

Accordingly, the research hypotheses were:

• 1.

  The influence of feedback on achievements will depend upon the subjects' level of extroversion–introversion;

• 2.

  A connection will be found between the type of feedback, extroversion–introversion traits and outcome variables. The ability feedback will increase the extrovert persona variable outcome. The effort feedback will increase the introvert persona variable outcome.

Feedback: Purpose And Influence

Feedback is “information provided to an individual performing a task by an external element, regarding aspects of the task performance” (DeNisi, 2015, Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). According to another definition, feedback provides the student with information through which he/she can validate, correct or readjust his/her process, restructure interdisciplinary or meta-cognitive knowledge, as well as change self-perceptions and tasks, tactics or cognitive strategies (Conrad, 2013; King, 2016). As a result, feedback might fulfill several functions: (a) Validate a correct course of action for the student, and thereby strengthen his/her perceptions as being suitable for the learning task objectives; (b) Add information, and so enable the student to develop prior knowledge and enhance his/her understanding; (c) Provide corrective information, which substitutes false elements in prior knowledge, or prior perceptions which are no longer suitable (Butler & Winne, 1995; Ching & Hsu, 2016; Kramarski & Zeichner, 2001). These different functions are included in what the professional literature defines as “informative feedback”, i.e. feedback which provides information to the student about his/her response to the presented task. The differences between one informative feedback and another depend upon the way information is delivered to the student (Kluger & DeNisi, 1996). The simplest feedback refers to the student’s response in terms of right/wrong (KRO - Knowledge of Result Only); more complex feedback is given in the form of corrective information (KCR - Knowledge of Correct Response), which can elaborate on the context of the response, whereas the third kind of feedback contains new material (KRE - Knowledge of Result Elaborated).