Examining the Impact of Teachers’ Agentic Feedback on Students’ Academic Performance: Mediating Effects of Students’ Engagement and Teachers’ Feedback Literacy

Feedback is widely acknowledged as a critical determinant of student learning and academic achievement; however, traditional feedback practices often position students as passive recipients, limiting their engagement and uptake of feedback. Responding to this limitation, the present study investigates the impact of teachers’ agentic feedback on students’ academic performance, with particular emphasis on the mediating roles of students’ engagement and teachers’ feedback literacy. Employing a convergent mixed-methods research design, the study was conducted among secondary school mathematics teachers and students in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Quantitative data were collected from 240 mathematics teachers and 452 secondary-level students using standardized Likert-scale questionnaires, while qualitative data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with 36 participants. Multistage sampling techniques were employed to ensure representativeness across districts, schools, teachers, and students. Quantitative data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), while qualitative data were examined using thematic analysis. The findings reveal that teachers’ agentic feedback exerts a significant positive effect on students’ engagement and teachers’ feedback literacy. Furthermore, both students’ engagement and teachers’ feedback literacy significantly mediate the relationship between agentic feedback and students’ academic performance in mathematics. Students’ engagement emerged as the stronger mediator, indicating its central role in translating feedback into improved learning outcomes. Qualitative findings corroborate the quantitative results, highlighting the importance of dialogic feedback, student agency, and professional competence in feedback practices, while also identifying contextual constraints such as large class sizes and examination pressure. The study concludes that fostering agentic feedback practices and enhancing teachers’ feedback literacy can substantially improve student engagement and academic performance, particularly in mathematics education within developing educational contexts.