SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS’ KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES ABOUT CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK: EVIDENCE FROM KARACHI, PAKISTAN

Teachers’ knowledge, conceptualization and actual practices in the classroom influence students’ academic performance. The present study sought to determine the existing practices and knowledge of teachers about constructive feedback, and to find how the knowledge of teachers would predict teachers’ feedback practices in classroom. A quantitative approach with survey research design was adopted to collect the data from the respondent through feedback knowledge questionnaire. The participants of the study were 396 secondary schools teachers of Karachi, Pakistan which were selected randomly from the population. Findings show that the teachers have good knowledge about providing constructive feedback as all the mean values of the constructs were in the range of acceptance (3.61-4.18). However they are not utilizing this knowledge in their daily teaching, as evidence from the descriptive analysis shows that majority teachers (69%) are taking more than a week time to provide feedback, and it is mostly in the form of verbal comments (64.1%) or just only tick or cross mark on students’ work (76.2%). That is the reason that insignificant results were found between teachers’ practices and their perception with very week negative correlation and effect size was also found negligible. Professional trainings are recommended to overcome this contradiction.


INTRODUCTION
Assessment for learning is a form of assessment which could improve students' performance if properly implemented (Ghazali, Abdullah, Zaini, & Hamzah, 2020). And, feedback is the key component of assessment for learning. By definition, feedback is information such as knowledge, skills or attitudes provided by teachers, peers, books, parents, self or experiences regarding one's performance (Hattie & Timperly, 2007). In short, feedback is known as 'a consequence of performance'. Information could be in the form of a corrective ones, an alternative strategy, a clarifying idea or encouraging ideas. In general, the conceptualizations of teaching or learning could influence practices and outcomes (Brinkmann, 2019). This is supported by Kulhavy & Stock (1989) who believe that teachers' knowledge of feedback could influence the implementation of assessment for learning during teaching and learning process which in turn could influence students' performance.
It is important to understand about the knowledge of feedback from the teachers' perspective within the context of the Pakistani educational system as the quality of education has been reported unsatisfactory in Pakistan (Government of Pakistan, 1998;Government of Pakistan, 2009;International Crisis Group, 2014). One of the factor is poor assessment practices (Din & Saeed, 2018). The classroom assessment, which consists of formative assessment are supposed to be implemented in classrooms to improve students' learning (Tahir, Khurshed, Ishfaq, & Gul, 2015), and, the most important component in assessment for learning is feedback (Black & Wiliam, 2009). Teachers are expected to assess during teaching and learning process i.e. assessment is integrated into the teaching and learning process (Ghazali et al., 2020). Hence, feedback provided to students are meant to improve students' learning and also to enable teachers to modify their teaching strategies (Iqbal, Ramzan, & Arain, 2016).
For example, teachers could do questioning techniques to determine knowledge, skills and values of students. The information gained could be used to help students with their practical teaching or to modify their lesson plan for the next class. Some of the suggested assessment techniques are peer-assessment and self-assessment. Both techniques are very powerful in improving knowledge and skills. Feedback used during self-assessment could make students to create learning by reflecting upon their own learning (Black & Wiliam, 2009). In addition, feedback during peer-assessment produces an internalize force in themselves regarding learning intentions and success criteria in the context of their peers work, which has more powerful effect on them.
This study regarding the influence of teachers' knowledge about constructive feedback on their practices is using the CIPP Model by Daniel Stufflebeam as its theoretical framework. According to Stufflebeam (2000), a process dimension which involves 'implementing decision' could influence a product dimension which involve 'recycling decisions'. A process dimension includes any information gained during the implementation of any activity or a complete description of any activity, whereas a product dimension includes any information on the outcome of any activity or program (Ghazali et al., 2020). In the context of this study, a process dimension is 'feedback knowledge' and a product dimension is 'feedback practices'. The framework of this study uses this model and hypothesizes that feedback knowledge do influence on feedback practices.
Feedback is a powerful strategy used by teachers from various level of study and subject matter in improving learning (Leahy, Lyon, Thompson, & Wiliam, 2005). However, there is a relatively limited body of research relating to teachers' knowledge about feedback. Some teachers feel that feedback could be in the form of spoken or written comments about learning, spoken or written comments about behaviour or grades or marks (Irving, Harris, & Peterson, 2011). Furthermore, Ghazali et al. (2020) believes that the kind of feedback provided to students do influence their learning. Giving only mark or grade is considered a weak feedback, whereas giving information on correct answers together with some explanations or activities for improvement are considered as a very powerful feedback. If we compare between giving marks, giving comments only or giving marks together with comments, the research has found that the second one is the most powerful way of giving feedback (Iqbal et al., 2016). This is because when students are given only comments, it allows them to improve their belief system and hence, helps them to improve their work. However, comments like 'quite a good job' does not really helps in improving students' learning as students do not get a clear and exact picture on how to improve their work (Leahy et al., 2005).
Some teachers believe that feedback could be used to realign their teaching strategies and teaching materials during teaching and learning process following the stated learning objectives (Hussain, Tabussam, & Yousuf, 2017). In addition, feedback could also be used to provide information on students' weaknesses and then, to try to get a better way to correct their misconception. Feedback can also be used for school report or to encourage students by means of praise. All of these are to improve students' learning. However, there also the negative sides of feedback. There are cases whereby feedback demotivates students as they do not understand the feedback provided (Wu & Schunn, 2020). Even, some students feel more stressful after getting feedback from teachers. Theoretically, in practicing a good feedback, a teacher has to make sure that a feedback is helping the students to realize their goals in learning and also the gap that exist between the current performance and the desired goal (Nicol & MacFarlene-Dick, 2006). A feedback has to be clear and exact. It should be written in a descriptive phase and not too generalized or an assumed interpretations (Ghazali et al., 2020). Furthermore, a good feedback allows students to develop their selfesteem and also makes them feel good about themselves.
There is a model of feedback which could be referred to in supporting this study (see Figure 1). This feedback model shows how the implementation of a constructive feedback could improve students' learning (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Constructive feedback is meant to reduce the gap between current understandings of students with the desired ones (Hussain et al., 2017). These could be achieved by three main operations which are 'feed up' trying to answer 'Where am I going?', 'feed-back' ('how am I going?') or 'feed forward' ('where to next?'). These three operations would work at four different levels. The feedback at the first three levels (task, process and self-regulation levels) is interrelated whereas those at the fourth level (self or personal level) are rarely effective.
Students learn better when they are provided effective or constructive feedback on their homework or assignments (Hattie & Timperley, 2007) and the teachers are the responsible to provide feedback to the students (Brown, Harris, & Harnett, 2012). Researches also proves that teachers' understanding about feedback influence the type and quality of feedback that they provide to their students in their classroom (Chan & Luo, 2021).
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the secondary school teachers' existing knowledge about constructive feedback and their practices of feedback in the classroom. The study also aims to investigate the effect of teachers' knowledge about constructive feedback on their feedback practices. This study is important as it integrates several variables of teachers' knowledge about feedback such as irrelevance; improvement; accountability; encouragement; task-level; process-level; selfregulation level; peer & self-assessment; and feedback timings, which can influence students' academic performance (Brown et al., 2012;Ghazali et al., 2020). There are few studies discussing on the feedback implementation in the Pakistani education system (Ahmad, Saeed, & Salam, 2013;Ghani & Ahmad, 2016;Gul et al., 2016;Noureen, Akhtar, & Awan, 2013). However, there was no evidence available on how teachers' knowledge of feedback interact with teachers' daily practices, a matter investigated in this study. All the hypothesized are developed following the CIPP Model whereby it states that any process dimension (feedback knowledge) influences product dimension (feedback practices).

METHODS
A quantitative approach with survey research design was adopted to collect the data from the respondent through feedback knowledge questionnaire adapted with permission from, "TCaF Inventory" (Brown et al., 2012). The target population of the study was the secondary school teachers of Karachi, Pakistan. The participants of the study were 396 secondary schools teachers of Karachi, Pakistan which were selected randomly from the population. Total 400 questionnaire were distributed to secondary school teachers of Karachi, Pakistan, out of which 390 were returned so, respondent rate was 97.5%.
Questionnaire consist three parts: Demographic information, teachers' daily feedback practices, and teachers' knowledge or concepts about feedback (TCaF). Teachers' practices consist 11 items on teachers' formative feedback practices; teachers' protective evaluative feedback practices and timing of feedback, each was measured using Ranking scale from Always(1) to Never(5). TCaF consists of 37 items from 9 subscales and measured using 5-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree(1) to strongly agree(5). Past studies have shown that this instrument has been validated by various studies in several countries. However, it is not validated yet in the Pakistani context. The reliability of the instrument was .917 which is more than .7, shows that the tool is reliable and consistent (Hair, Ringle, & Sarstedt, 2011;Santos, 1999).
Factorial structure was used to explore the teachers' existing knowledge about constructive feedback and their daily practices of feedback in the classroom. For this, factors' validity was confirmed by CFA, and then descriptive analysis was performed to explore the aggregation. Correlation and regression path was run between the factors in a structure equation model and effect of teachers' knowledge about constructive feedback on their daily feedback practices was investigated.

Profile of Respondents
There are 196 (50.3%) male and 194 (49.7%) female participants involved in the study. Majority of the teachers (54.1%) hold a Master degree with the professional qualification like M.Ed. Ratio of the teachers with the expertise of science and arts subjects are same that is 46.2%, whereas 7.7% teachers having background of commerce. 49% teachers are teaching in grade VI-VIII, 28.7% teachers are teaching only in grade IX-X, whereas 22.3% teachers are teaching in grade VI-X. Majority teachers (34.9%) having experience of 10 or more years of teaching. 31.3% teachers have attended 1-2 training session on formative assessment while 13.3% teachers attended none.

Convergent Validity of TCaF Questionnaire
The Table 1 represents the convergent validity of the model. .881 Quantitative analysts suggest the use of outer loadings, Cronbach's Alpha, composite reliability and average variance extracted (AVE) values to establish the convergent validity of the concerts. As per the criteria, the outer loadings value of the indicators has to be greater than .5. In the Table 1, all the values of related items are greater than .5; additionally, the average variance extracted (AVE) value for all the constructs is greater than .5. This ensures the convergent validity among the constructs. Moreover, Cronbach's Alpha value has to be more than .7 (Santos, 1999) and composite reliability value is supposed to be more than Cronbach's Alpha value of the respective construct. It is revealed from the Table 1 that the Cronbach's Alpha value of all the constructs is more than .7 (Hair et al., 2011) and the composite reliability value is greater than respective Cronbach's Alpha value. This ensures the reliability of the constructs. In conclusion, the Table 1 implies and ensures the reliability as well as validity of all the constructs. Table 2 represents the Fornell-Larcker Criterion for testing the discriminant validity of the constructs. As per this criteria, the average variance extracted value of a construct has to be more than square root of the correlations among the constructs (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). In the Table 2, the average variance extracted value is more than the respective correlations among the constructs; therefore, discriminant validity is certified.  Table 3 represents the timings of the feedback which secondary school teachers of Karachi districts are practicing. It is found that 163 (41.8%) teachers are taking more than a week to provide feedback on their students' work/ assignments/task, and 106 (27.2%) teachers are giving feedback on students' work in between 5 or 6 days. Whereas only .8% teachers are providing feedback immediately after students' work and 2.3% teachers are giving feedback on the same day. Protective evaluation practices of secondary school teachers of Karachi, Pakistan was measured on ranking scale (Table 4). 39.5% teachers preferred to give rank 1 to the option that they always provide feedback in the form of tick or cross on students' work; 26.8% teachers preferred to give rank 2; 22.2% teachers preferred to give rank 3; 5.9% teachers preferred to give rank 4 while 5.9% teachers preferred to give rank 5 to this option that they never just tick or cross students' work. 17.4% teachers gave rank 1 to the option that they always provide feedback in the form of grades or scores on students' work; 36.5% teachers gave rank 2 to this option; 29.7% teachers gave rank 3; 8.7% teachers preferred to give rank 4 whereas 7.7% teachers gave rank 5 to this option that they never give feedback in the form of scores or grades. 36.7% teachers are appreciating students work by remarking excellent or good whereas 5.7% teachers never do so. 21.8% teachers never provide feedback in the form of pasting stickers or smiley faces on students work at secondary level although 1.5% teachers are doing this practice. 59.2% secondary school teachers expressed that they never provide correct answers on students' incorrect answers while 4.9% teachers are providing the correct answers on students' incorrect answer.   Table 5 represents formative feedback practices of secondary school teachers of Karachi, Pakistan, measured on ranking scale. 64.1% teachers preferred to give rank 1 to the option that they always provide feedback in the form of verbal comments on students' work which are usually comprised into one or two words; 24.9% teachers preferred to give rank 2 to this option; 10.5% teachers gave rank 3; while .3% and .2% teachers preferred to give rank 4 and 5 respectively to this option that they never provide one or two words verbal comments on students' work. 13.4% teachers preferred to give rank 1 to the option that they always provide detailed written comments as a feedback on students' work whereas 7.4%, 22.1%, 7.4%, and 49.7% teachers preferred to give rank 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively to this option. 10.1% teachers always discuss with students about their work whereas 22.3% teachers never do so. 60.6% teachers rarely provide feedback in the form of information on the quality of the work related to the standards or norms at secondary level although 7% teachers are doing this practice. 27.3% and 19.7% secondary school teachers expressed that they never or rarely provide hints, tips, or reminder on students' work in written form however 40.8% teachers are providing hints, tips, or reminder on students' work in written form.

Exciting Teachers' Knowledge about Constructive Feedback
Factors of feedback knowledge of secondary school teachers of Karachi is presented in Table 6. Skewness values of each factor shows that the data is not distributed normally. Mean value of factor -improvement; accountability; encouragement; task; process; self-regulation; peer & self-assessment; and feedback timelines is in between 3.61 to 4.18, which is in acceptable range (Oja, 1983), it means that the secondary school teachers of Karachi have sufficient knowledge or concepts about the factors of feedback except the factor -irrelevance, whose mean value is 2.33 nearest to disagree about the statement.

Impact of Teachers' Knowledge about Constructive Feedback on their Feedback Practices
The Table 7 depict the beta, R square, effect size (f-square) and p value of all the paths of hypothesized model. As per the results of 1 st hypothesis, perspective p value is greater than alpha (p value > .01) so the hypothesis is rejected, results are not significant. Teachers' formative feedback practices in the form of verbal comments are not significantly correlated and predicted by improvement factor (r = -.099; β = -.174; ΔR 2 = .009; f 2 = .009); task level factor (r = -.097; β= -.25; ΔR 2 = .005; f 2 = .005); process level factor (r = -.003; β = -.039; ΔR 2 = .000; f 2 = .000); and self-regulation level factor (r = -.098; β = -.163; ΔR 2 = .008; f 2 = .008). Result of 2 nd hypothesis, perspective p value is lesser than alpha (p value < .01) so the alternative hypothesis is accepted, teacher protective evaluation feedback factor is predicted by encouragement or self-level concepts factor but it shows a very week correlation (r = .203; β = .359; ΔR 2 = .041; f 2 = .042). The practices of giving praise while giving grades or scores appeared to be linked to the idea that feedback is meant to be encouraging and supportive of student emotional commitment and engagement in learning. In the 3 rd hypothesis, perspective p value is greater than alpha (p value >.01) so the alternative hypothesis is rejected, result shows insignificance, teacher timing of feedback practices is not predicted by timeline factor (β = -.193; ΔR 2 = .015; f 2 = .015) and shows a very week correlation (r = -.040). This negative correlation and beta value of path show that negative relation of teachers' daily practices and teachers' knowledge about timeline factor.

Discussion
This study was aimed to explore secondary school teachers' existing knowledge about constructive feedback and their practices of providing feedback in the classroom. It was found that teachers at secondary level are delay in providing feedback to students, generally they are taking more than a week time to provide comments or feedback on students' assignments or work. Studies shows that immediate constructive feedback enhance students' task motivation, delayed conventional feedback suppress it (Salihu, Aro, & Räsänen, 2017). It was also found in the study that providing feedback in the form of just tick or cross on students' work or just providing grades is a general practices of secondary school teachers of Karachi, Pakistan, which do not provide effective ideas or provide false ideas to students about their performance (Bing-You, Hayes, Varaklis, Trowbridge, Kemp, & McKelvy, 2017;Duffy, 2013;Ghazali et al., 2020;Hamid & Mahmood, 2010;Irving et al., 2011). It was also found in the study that secondary school teachers are providing one or two words verbal comments on students' work, which again do not provide students about their progress, and students are also unable to identify their weakness in the study as these one or two words verbal comments do not provide students a better picture about their progress (Aslam & Khan, 2020;Guskey, 2019).
Teacher' knowledge about the constructive feedback was found in acceptable range. This outcomes seemed true for teachers' knowledge about feedback competencies but not for their feedback practices (Smit, Hess, Bachmann, Blum, & Birri, 2019). Hattie & Timperley (2007) suggests that teachers often claims they give feedback but they do not. Previous studies (Brown et al., 2012;Eraut, 2000;Hammerness, Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005;Harnett, 2017;Turner-Bisset, 1999) have concluded that there is frequently a discrepancy between what teachers believe or claim they are doing and what they are actually doing. Some teachers feel that feedback could be in the form of spoken or written comments about learning, spoken or written comments about behaviour or grades or marks (Irving et al., 2011). Researches shows that the teachers' knowledge or belief about teaching and learning generally predict their teaching practices (Alqassab, Strijbos, & Ufer, 2019). The need of a greater alignment between knowledge and practices can only be achieved through trainings (Hyland, 2013;Torres, Strong, & Adesope, 2020).
The reasons for teachers not maintain feedback practices in classroom could be lack of effective communication skills (Hussain et al., 2017); inappropriate form of professional supports (Brown et al., 2012); time hindrance (Nawab, 2011). Result of this study shows that secondary school teachers of Karachi, Pakistan have the knowledge of proposed Hattie & Timperley's (2007) feedback model (i.e. Task level; Process level; Self-regulation level; and Self level). Though, inter-correlation do not made in practices among task level; process level; self-regulation level; and self-level. In the present study teachers couldn't identify the irrelevance purpose, although in the previous studies, teachers clearly identified the irrelevance, improvement, and encouragement purposes (Brown et al., 2012;Ghazali et al., 2020;Irving et al., 2011).

CONCLUSION
Nowadays, there is a need for teachers from all levels to continuously upgrading their knowledge and skills in assessment methods and techniques to keep updated with the latest educational development. Hence, the issue of belief system towards assessment especially assessment for learning should not be neglected. This study has contributed to the body of knowledge which highlights a teacher's knowledge about feedback along with their practices in daily routine which are the main component in assessment for learning, and are an important factor that can contribute to improved knowledge and skills of students.
To conclude, good teachers are those who will invest in strengthening their value systems and, thus, strengthening their practices to consistently enhance the performance of their students. Data shows that Pakistani secondary school teachers have a difference in their knowledge and practices about constructive feedback. The focus of the teachers was to provide students with only a tick or cross on the students' work rather than task-oriented feedback. To improve instructional and curricular activities, proper instructional supports are required. It is also recommended that sufficient professional support should be provided to educators to differentiate between knowledge and practices.
With additional strategies for assessing feedback practices (e.g., classroom observations, student written feedback inspection, student feedback reporting), future research of this inventory will be much stronger to assess the degree to which teachers' self-reported endorsement of the learning-orientation is reflected in their practice. The relatively week regression weights from the teachers' about their feedback knowledge to their practices indicates that other variables such as grade level, student success, appraisal characteristics, or teachers' personality may effects on their knowledge about constructive feedback so, future research may incorporate moderating and mediating variables to examine teachers' knowledge and practices about constructive feedback.