Teachers’ Perceptions of the Characteristics and Functions of Feedback in Different Assessment Situations in Secondary Education

This article analyzes teachers’ perceptions of the characteristics and functions of feedback across different assessment situations in secondary education. Participants were fifteen History and Social Sciences teachers employed in private, fee-paying, and state-subsidized schools in Chile. An individual interview protocol was developed around the following dimensions: meaning, assessment situations, purpose, organization, strategies/actions, factors, and better feedback practice. The protocol was applied to ascertain its capacity to capture perceptions of feedback practices. Interviews were coded using deductive qualitative content analysis. Results indicate that feedback primarily focuses on teachers’ actions with limited student participation. It combines evaluative feedback identifying strengths and errors and descriptive feedback supporting learning through questions, instrument-guided comments, and criteria addressing content and cross-cutting aspects. The interview protocol proved suitable for probing perceptions of feedback practice, enabling detailed description. Findings underscore the need to strengthen dialogic and participatory feedback oriented toward the systematic use of information to enhance learning. The study concludes by underscoring the need to advance iterative feedback cycles and to investigate the use of assessment instruments as scaffolds, together with strategies that promote students’ active participation in feedback.