When Do Teachers Respond to Student Feedback? Evidence from a Field Experiment

Margaretha Buurman (), Josse Delfgaauw, Robert Dur and Robin Zoutenbier ()
Additional contact information
Margaretha Buurman: Free University Amsterdam
Robin Zoutenbier: Ministry of Finance, The Netherlands

No 12907, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We ran a field experiment at a large Dutch school for intermediate vocational education to examine whether the response of teachers to student feedback depends on the content of the feedback. Students evaluated all teachers, but only a randomly selected group of teachers received feedback. Additionally, we asked all teachers before as well as a year after the experiment to assess their own performance on the same items. We find a precisely estimated zero average treatment effect of receiving student feedback on student evaluation scores a year later. However, teachers whose self-assessment before the experiment is much more positive than their students' evaluations do improve significantly in response to receiving feedback. We also find that provision of feedback reduces the gap between teachers' self-assessment and students' assessment, but only to a limited extent. All of these results are driven by the female teachers in our sample; male teachers appear to be unresponsive to student feedback.

Keywords: field experiment; feedback; teachers; student evaluations; self-assessment; gender differences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 I2 M5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59 pages
Date: 2020-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-edu, nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published - published in: Labour Economics, 2020, 65, 101858

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Journal Article: When do teachers respond to student feedback? Evidence from a field experiment (2020)
Working Paper: When Do Teachers Respond to Student Feedback? Evidence from a Field Experiment (2020)
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