The role of feedback acceptance and gaining awareness on teachers' willingness to use inspection feedback

Abstract: Feedback acceptance and use are often seen as requirements for teacher change after a school inspection. Non-educational research, however, points to the role of feedback recipients\u2019 willingness to use the feedback received as an intermediate phase between their acceptance and use of the feedback. It also postulates the importance of a recipient\u2019s awareness gained from the feedback, cognitive responses and individual characteristics. However, quantitative evidence in school inspection context to support this theory has been non-existent. This study draws on quantitative data collected from 687 teachers in 80 Flemish primary schools that had recently been inspected. By means of structural equation modelling, we build a research model that focuses on the relationship between cognitive responses, teachers\u2019 feedback acceptance, awareness gained from the inspection feedback received, and teachers\u2019 willingness to use inspection feedback. In addition, the relationship between individual teacher characteristics and the different components in the research model were also taken into account. The analysis reveals that teachers\u2019 willingness to use the feedback is predominantly explained by the perceived relevance of the inspection feedback. In addition, we found statistically significant relationships between teachers\u2019 willingness to use inspection feedback and feedback acceptance, and also between teachers\u2019 willingness to use inspection feedback and awareness gained from inspection feedback too