In this conceptual replication of the study by Westphal et al. (2018), teachers were surveyed about their attitudes and motives towards standardized diagnostic procedures and possible connections between these attitudes and motives and changes in teaching instruction. The background to this was the further development of the so-called Informal Competence Measurement (IKM), originally conceived as informal feedback for teachers to supplement the mandatory educational monitoring in Austria through the Bildungsstandards (BIST-Ü), into Individual Competence Measurement PLUS (iKMPLUS). Since the 2021/22 school year, this has been mandatory at primary level for the subjects of mathematics and German and since the 2022/23 school year at secondary level, here additionally in the subject of English. For this reason, we again surveyed N = 428 primary and secondary school teachers on the use of this data-based feedback with the same inventory from the previous study on IKM. Mean value comparisons, relative to the original study, reveal moderately higher levels of competency-based instruction and a greater readiness for instructional change. A latent structural equation model largely replicates the original study’s findings: the motivation for the intended use of the relevant diagnostic tool positively correlates with self-reported competence orientation and negatively correlates with the willingness to make changes in teaching instruction. The same pattern of correlation is also shown for the secondary level with positive attitudes of teachers towards standardized diagnostic procedures. However, the surprising correlation between higher diagnostic self-efficacy and a lower willingness to change instruction is also confirmed. In the discussion, we acknowledge emerging changes in data use while underscoring the need to strengthen attention to non-cognitive dimensions of professional competence in pre-service and continuing teacher education.
