PhD Ceremony Dhr. A.J. (Arjan) Koek: Learning to read and understand philosophy texts through feedback
On 06 oktober 2026 14:30, Dhr. A.J. (Arjan) Koek will defend their PhD at the University of Groningen.
Learning to read and understand philosophy texts through feedback
Many pre-university students experience difficulties in understanding philosophy texts. This study developed a digital learning program in philosophy of science to investigate how different forms of feedback can support students’ philosophical reading comprehension.
Three feedback factors were examined: content (elaborated versus global), timing (immediate versus delayed), and allocation (optional versus non-optional). A pretest–posttest experimental design was used to determine which feedback conditions, or combinations of conditions, were most effective.A total of 307 students participated and were randomly assigned to one of eight (2×2×2) experimental conditions. During the program, students completed six learning tasks in which they read philosophy of science texts, answered multiple-choice questions, and received feedback on their responses.Regression analyses showed that students improved their philosophical reading comprehension over the intervention. However, no significant differences were found between the feedback conditions.
To further investigate variation among learners, latent profile analyses were conducted using log data from the learning program. These analyses identified three distinct learner profiles: 1) high-performing, motivated students who benefited most from elaborated and delayed feedback; 2) students who experienced greater difficulty with the tasks and were more likely to avoid feedback; 3) students who started at a lower level but showed the greatest improvement, benefiting particularly from global and immediate feedback.
The findings suggest that no single feedback design is optimal for all learners. While digital feedback may be a valuable tool for supporting learning in philosophy education, it should be regarded as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, the teacher.
Dissertation: https://hdl.handle.net/11370/d0dfbac3-eea5-4591-b2c9-5f104e29dc79
The ceremony will take place at Academy Building, UG.