Empirische Arbeit: For Whom Does AI Feedback Support Writing Self-Efficacy? The Role of Students’ Achievement Goal Orientation and Writing Skills

Writing self-efficacy supports the development of key competencies in secondary school. Feedback from re-reading one’s writing or feedback from artificial intelligence can enhance self-efficacy. However, effects differ between students, raising questions about for whom AI feedback supports writing self-efficacy. We thus examined the moderating role of students’ achievement goal orientations and their writing skills. In a two-group experiment (n1=400/n2=405), students wrote an argumentative text and received either AI-based feedback or were prompted to create their own feedback by re-reading their text. Students with stronger (weaker) performance goals reported lower (higher) self-efficacy in the AI feedback compared to self-feedback group; performance-avoidance goals showed the strongest moderation. The relation between mastery goal orientation and AI feedback effects was positive (negative) for students with low (high) writing skills. The feedback effects ranged from d=+0.4 to -0.2 between students, highlighting the need for personalized feedback based on students’ goals and skills.