Teachers’ Response to Evaluators’ Feedback

A new study finds that the usefulness of teacher evaluation feedback and the credibility of the evaluator are important characteristics in how teacher perceive and respond to evaluations.

The Regional Educational Laboratory Central study looks at teachers’ perceptions of feedback from evaluators and identifies characteristics of feedback that may influence their use of that feedback. The study confirms that teachers’ perceptions of four feedback characteristics influence their response: the usefulness of the feedback, the accuracy of the feedback, the credibility of the evaluator, and the resources to which they have access. The study looked at survey responses from teachers in seven districts in two states that were piloting a new teacher evaluation system.

Among the findings:

•    Most teachers agreed that the feedback they received was useful and accurate and that their evaluator was credible;

•    Teachers indicated that evaluator credibility was the most important characteristic affecting their response to feedback; and

•    Teachers’ response to feedback is influenced by how useful they perceive it to be, which is influenced by how credible they perceive their evaluator to be.