The application of feedback in secondary school classrooms: Teaching and learning in applied level mathematics

The power of feedback has been established as an effective support for teaching and learning. The formative nature of feedback has been shown to have positive but varied effects for the learning and self-regulation of students. The varied effect of feedback has important implications for teachers to support the needs of students in grade 9 applied level mathematics. The present study examined the instructional strategies that teachers use to help students seek, evaluate and apply feedback in mathematics. The investigation also focused on the determining the strategies that teachers use to support the self-regulation of students and overcome pedagogical barriers in applied level mathematics.;Teachers of grade 9 applied level mathematics were involved in collaborative inquiry to discern their professional practices and to discuss effective means of providing feedback to students. Three interviews form the basis of a descriptive case study to investigate the factors that teachers perceive as important to the provision of feedback in the teaching and learning of grade 9 applied level mathematics.;The findings of the investigation reveal that teachers in grade 9 applied level mathematics perceive students to experience significant difficulty evaluating the merits of feedback. The lack of basic skills and proficiency in mathematics provide significant limitations on the ability of students in applied level classrooms to judge the value of feedback. The findings show that students in applied level classrooms have experienced many years of failure which detracts from their confidence and success in learning. The study identifies affective supports that are necessary to create a safe learning environment and the program planning that teachers use to support the mathematical communications of students.;The findings show that teachers value the immediacy of feedback, establish a learning environment that is conducive to frequent rehearsal and practice and require students to justify their understanding by focusing on oral communication. The findings also highlight discrepant results from the body of research on the use of feedback. The study demonstrates that teachers may be aware of the value of strategies that support metacognition, however, the use of learning goals, success criteria and manipulatives to support feedback and communications may not be intentionally applied.