Unravelling undergraduates’ development of evaluative judgments through AI-supported internal feedback

Abstract

Making evaluative judgments is a core lifelong learning capacity and the foundation of student feedback literacy. However, its development in second language (L2) writing remains underexplored. This qualitative case study investigated how 28 undergraduates developed evaluative judgement through comparison of essay drafts with exemplars, AI feedback and their goals in three writing tasks throughout a 14-week semester. Data sources included students’ self-reflection forms, semi-structured interviews, initial and revised essay drafts. Findings showed that through iterative comparison, their evaluation focus expanded from language features to higher-order aspects of writing (content, organisation, and coherence), but their evaluative reasoning lacked sophistication. Three types of evaluators (reconstructive; language-focused; criteria-compliance) were identified to illustrate their differing evaluative judgement orientations, developmental pathways, and ways of using internal feedback to formulate academic judgments. Implications for evaluative judgement-related pedagogical and research designs are outlined.