High-school teachers' experiences with formative feedback and its predictive relationship to self-efficacy and job satisfaction

In High school teachers' experiences with formative feedback and its predictive relationship to self-efficacy and job satisfaction, formative feedback and its significant predictive relationships to teacher self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and differences between teachers who rated them selves as low or high efficacy and job satisfaction was studied (Wood, 2011). A descriptive survey was used to answer the following research questions: What are teachers' experiences with characteristics of formative feedback? Is there a predictive relationship between formative feedback and job satisfaction? Is there a predictive relationship between formative feedback and teacher self-efficacy? Is there a difference between job satisfaction scores for teachers who rate themselves as high in self-efficacy and teachers who rate themselves as low in self-efficacy? Social cognitive and teacher evaluation theory were used to develop surveys and answer research questions. A portion of the instrument used was modified from the Tschannes-Moran and Woolfolk Hoy (2001) efficacy survey and was evaluated using a panel of experts. The survey was conducted online in a large suburban school district among six high schools. The sample consisted of grade 9–12 classroom teachers from all content areas and years of experience. Descriptive data found varied experience with formative feedback among three categories; style, uses, and personal affect. After multiple regression analysis was conducted, significant predictive relationships between job satisfaction and style of feedback for new teachers, and job satisfaction and affect of feedback for veteran teachers were found. Multiple regression analysis also showed predictive relationships between self-efficacy and affect of feedback for veteran teachers although no predictive relationships were found between self-efficacy and formative feedback for new teachers. After an independent t test and Mann-Whitney U test were conducted, it was found that teachers with high efficacy had significantly higher means of job satisfaction. Implications from this study call for the use of formative feedback to increase teacher efficacy and satisfaction. Practical implications could result in better design and implementation of evaluation and feedback systems, knowledge of how teachers can use feedback to develop and monitor goals, more collaboration for improved performance, and the initiation of feedback within the classroom for student success.