Investigation of the Secondary School Math Teachers’ Feedback Giving Process and Their Perceptions of Feedback

In this study, it was aimed to determine how secondary school mathematics teachers perceive feedback and to investigate the processes of feedback use. The participants of the study, in which qualitative research methods were used, were 16 secondary school mathematics teachers. The participants were selected by means of criterion sampling. The data of this study was collected through focus group interviews and observations, and content analysis method was used to analyze the data. According to the results of the study, the participants’ perception of feedback is primarily related to the teacher feedback. It was also found out maths teachers that stated opinions about teacher and students’ feedback, did not mention about feedback of peers. In the research, it was identified that feedback concept is mostly used by teachers for correcting, defining, completing, reinforcing, explaining, evaluating, confirming, questioning, giving clue, repetition and motivating. Although participants expressed that they use feedback at every stage of lesson, with observations it was identified that they use feedback mostly at the last stage of lesson to make evaluation whereas they do not generally use feedback at the beginning. When current feedback is examined, it was determined that participants mostly use correcting feedback, questioning feedback, motivating feedback, explaining feedback and confirming feedback respectively. Moreover, it was found out that the participants did not employ a professional approach in choosing which feedback type to use, and that the studies that would raise teachers’ awareness are needed. Hence, it can be suggested that feedback perceptions of maths teachers should be enriched and also their theoretical knowledge of feedback should be strengthened and reflected effectively to practice.