Towards conceptualising internal feedback in higher education: implications for feedback research and practice

Traditionally, feedback has been viewed as an external input from teachers, peers, or digital tools that guides students’ learning. However, scholarship increasingly recognises feedback as a dynamic, interactive process and emphasises the importance of internal feedback, which is the self-generated evaluative information learners produce for sustainable learning. This conceptual review article synthesises existing feedback models that address internal feedback processes implicitly and explicitly and categorises them into four types: Cybernetics Models, Internal Mechanism Models, Interactive Feedback Loop Models, and Feedback Literacy Frameworks. The review identifies common mechanisms across these models, including metacognitive activities, cognitive strategies, emotional and motivational regulation, and behavioural engagement, which contribute to the recursive and multidimensional nature of the internal feedback process. By synthesising theoretical frameworks and highlighting key research gaps, this article provides a conceptual framework for understanding the internal feedback process and its implications for future research and educational practice.