Effects of school leaders’ feedback on teaching on teachers’ self-rated instructional competence development—Results of an intervention study considering teachers’ goal orientations

Abstract

Feedback by school leaders often is of poor quality and thus not always effective. Therefore, a feedback intervention was developed to assist school leaders in providing high-quality feedback to teachers based on which they can improve their instructional competence. The effectiveness of the intervention was tested within a quasi-experimental study. The present paper examines whether teachers who received feedback from their school leader rate their competence development more positively than teachers who did not receive feedback. After receiving feedback, teachers of the intervention group on average did not report a higher competence development than teachers of the control group. Therefore, interactions of school leaders’ feedback and teachers’ goal orientations were examined. With regard to teachers’ learning goal orientation and performance approach goal orientation, an interaction was found. Teachers with a pronounced learning goal orientation and performance approach goal orientation who received feedback reported a higher competence development than teachers of the control group.