Teachers’ Pedagogical Practices: Primary Predictors of Instructional Data Use in Chile.

The effective use of data for instructional improvement has become a central priority in education, particularly in accountability-driven systems such as Chile’s. While organizational enablers and access conditions have been widely studied, less is known about how pedagogical practices shape teachers’ engagement with data. This study investigates how three instructional dimensions—evaluation practices, instructional clarity, and cognitive activation—influence teachers’ use of data in Chilean primary schools. Drawing on longitudinal survey data from 1,226 responses across 50 schools, we used multilevel analyses to examine the relative contribution of organizational and pedagogical factors. Findings indicate that teachers’ practices, rather than organizational supports, are the strongest predictors of instructional data use across school groups. Evaluation practices and instructional clarity are most strongly associated with data use, while cognitive activation shows a positive but weaker effect. These results underscore the need for professional development and leadership strategies that embed data use within everyday pedagogical practice.