Effort Feedback as a Prerequisite for Primary School Students’ Implicit Theories and their Reading Motivation

Author(s):

Frank Hellmich(submitting)Fabian Hoya(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

11. Educational Improvement and Quality Assurance

Format:

Paper

Session Information

11 SES 11 A, How Can We Improve Teaching Processes?

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

17:15-18:45

Room:

W2.10

Chair:

Jesús Miguel Rodríguez-Mantilla

Contribution

Parental und primary school teachers` support is an important prerequisite for children’s learning processes. Feedback represents information transmitted by parents or teachers with the objective of supporting children`s learning processes and to clarify discrepancies between actual performances and learning goals (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Hattie (2003) points out that feedback often relates to “aspects of one’s performance or understanding“ and can be understood as “a `consequence´ of performance“ (p. 2). Empirical evidence for the importance of significant others` feedback (e.g., parents, teachers) on the development of children`s implicit theories of intelligence, their self-concepts and their motivation was provided in the last years (e.g., Burnett, 2003; Cimpian, Arce, Markman, & Dweck, 2007; Mueller & Dweck, 1998). With regard to our research interest, two types of attributional feedback are distinguished (Burnett, 2003): feedback on effort and feedback on ability. Feedback on effort means praise or criticism on primary school students` performances at home or at school, whereas feedback on ability is understood as praise or criticism on their personality traits or individual characteristics (Burnett & Mandel, 2010; Kamins & Dweck, 1999, p. 835). Feedback on effort in relation to feedback on ability is considered as an important determinant for children`s learning development (Dweck, 2007). Currently, there are only a few studies concerning the role of parental and teachers’ effort feedback for students’ implicit theories, their self-concepts as well as their intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation. Gunderson, Gripshover, Romero, Dweck, Goldin-Meadow and Levine (2013) investigated the role of parental effort feedback for children`s implicit theories of intelligence. The results of the study reveal a significant correlation between the parental effort feedback and children`s incremental theories of intelligence. In addition, significant others` feedback is considered as an important determinant for the development of individuals` self-concept. For now, no specific studies have been carried out concerning the importance of effort feedback and children`s academic self-concepts. In contrast, the role of parental encouragements and support for children`s self-concepts could be pointed out (Rogers, Theule, Ryan, & Keating, 2009). Effort Feedback is also considered to be highly important for the development of children`s intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The results of experiments by Mueller and Dweck (1998) reveal that students who had received praise on effort showed a significantly stronger learning goal orientation than students who had obtained praise on their abilities. In comparison, students who had received praise for their abilities showed a significantly stronger performance goal orientation than students who had been praised for their efforts.

Currently, there is a lack of research on the importance of parental and teachers` effort feedback for the development of children`s implicit theories, their academic self-concepts as well as their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Furthermore, the question whether parental or teachers` effort feedback is more important for the development of children`s implicit theories, their academic self-concepts as well as their learning and achievement motivation is not answered yet. In the available studies parental and teachers` feedback was only generally operationalized in most cases. Therefore, our study investigates whether primary school students` implicit theories, their reading self-concepts and their reading motivation can be predicted by their perceptions of their parental and teachers` effort feedback on reading outcomes. Based on the work of Eccles (2005), we assume that the effects of children`s perceptions of their parental and teachers` feedback on their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are mediated by their implicit theories and their reading self-concepts. We expect that children`s perceptions of effort feedback can increase or decrease their implicit theories and their reading self-concepts. These processes lead to effects on primary school students` intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

Method

In our study N=685 third and fourth grade students (350 girls, 335 boys) from 15 primary schools (46 school classes) in Germany were involved. At the time of the implementation, the students mean age was nine years. The primary school children involved in our study completed a questionnaire concerning their implicit theories, their intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation, their reading self-concepts as well as their perceptions of their parental and teachers` effort feedback. The questionnaire scale `Implicit theories of reading abilities´ comprised three items (M=4.55, SD=0.58, α=.66; example: „You can learn to read.“; 5-point Likert scale; 1=-- to 5=++). This scale was developed by ourselves on the basis of Dweck (2000). Primary school students also responded to items of the questionnaire scales `Intrinsic reading motivation´ (4 items; M=3.33, SD=0.73, α=.81; example: “Why do you read when you are not at school? – I read because it is fun.“) and `Extrinsic reading motivation´ (9 items; M=2.75, SD=0.74, α=.86; example: “Why do you read when you are not at school? – I read because I want to be the best student in the reading lessons.”) developed by Stutz, Schaffner and Schiefele (2014). On both scales the pupils rated their agreement towards each statement on a 4-point scale (1=no to 4=yes). Based on the questionnaire scale of Schöne, Dickhäuser, Spinath and Stiensmeier-Pelster (2002), primary school students were asked to provide information on their reading self-concepts (5 items; M=3.99, SD=0.75, α=.84; example: “When I look at what we need to be able to read, I think that I … can only read a little bit ☐☐☐☐☐ can read much.“). In order to assess primary school students` perceptions of their parental and teachers` effort feedback, we used and adapted questionnaire scales of Burnett (2002). The questionnaire scale `Primary school students` perceptions of their parental effort feedback´ comprised six items (M=3.10, SD=1.16, α=.92; example: “How often do your parents say these things to you after you have read a text? – You put a lot of effort in your reading.“). The scale `Primary school students` perceptions of their teachers` effort feedback´ included also six items (M=2.92, SD=1.07, α=.90; example: “How often does your teacher say these things to you after you have read a text? – You are working really hard in reading.“). The children made their assessments on five-point Likert scales on both of the questionnaire scales anchored from 1 (“never”) to 5 (“very often”).

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes illustrate that primary school students have high reading self-concepts (M=3.99, SD=0.75). In general, they show an incremental theory of their reading abilities (M=4.55, SD=0.58). The children are both intrinsically (M=3.33, SD=0.73) and extrinsically motivated in reading at home (M=2.75, SD=0.74). In addition, they significantly perceive effort feedback from their parents at home more often than from their teachers at school (M=3.10, SD=1.16 versus M=2.92, SD=1.07; t=5.19, df=670, p≤.001). Furthermore, the results of a structural equation model show that primary school students` reading self-concepts are predicted by their perceptions of their parental and their teachers` effort feedback. Children`s implicit theories of their reading abilities can be explained by their parental effort feedback, whereas the perceptions of their teachers` effort feedback show no effect on their implicit theories. Furthermore, primary school students` intrinsic reading motivation is predicted by their perceptions of their parental effort feedback and their implicit theories of their reading abilities. Finally, children`s extrinsic reading motivation can be explained by their perceptions of the parental effort feedback, their reading self-concepts and their implicit theories. Contrary to our theoretical assumptions, the results of the structural equation model show that primary school students` implicit theories as well as their intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation cannot be predicted by their perceptions of their teachers` effort feedback on reading outcomes. Certainly, the results reveal that primary school students` perceptions of their parental feedback seem to play a more important role for their extrinsic reading motivation than for their intrinsic reading motivation. The results from our study give information about the role of primary school students’ perceptions of their parental feedback on reading processes for their reading motivation. These findings could be integrated in the further development of ‘family literacy’-programs that foster the parental involvement for promoting children’s development of reading competence.

References

Burnett, P. C. (2002). Teacher feedback. Retrieved from http://eprints.qut.edu.au/26833/2/26833.pdf Burnett, P. C. (2003). The impact of teacher feedback on student self-talk and self-concept in reading and mathematics. The Journal of Classroom Interaction, 38(1), 11-16. Burnett, P. & Mandel, V. (2010). Praise and feedback in the primary classroom: Teachers` and students` perspectives. Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 10, 145-154. Cimpian, A., Arce, H. C., Markman, E. M., & Dweck, C. S. (2007). Subtle linguistic cues affect children’s motivation. Psychological Science, 18(4), 314-316. Dweck, C. S. (2000). Self-theories. Their role in motivation, personality, and development. Lillington, NC: Edwards Brothers. Dweck, C. S. (2007). Boosting achievement with messages that motivate. Education Canada, 47(2), 6-10. Eccles, J. S. (2005). Subjective task value and the Eccles et al. model of achievement-related choices. In A. J. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of competence and motivation (pp. 105-121). New York: The Guildford Press. Gunderson, E. A., Gripshover, S. J., Romero, C., Dweck, C. S., Goldin-Meadow, S., & Levine, S. C. (2013). Parent praise to 1- to 3-year-olds predicts children’s motivational frameworks 5 years later. Child Development, 84(5), 1526-1541. Hattie, J. & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. Hattie, J. (2003). Why is it so difficult to enhance self-concept in the classroom: The power of feedback in the self-concept-achievement relationship. Paper presented at the International SELF conference, Sydney, Australia. Kamins, M. L. & Dweck, C. S. (1999). Person versus process praise and criticism: Implications for contingent self-worth and coping. Developmental Psychology, 35(3), 835-847. Mueller, C. M. & Dweck, C. S. (1998). Praise for intelligence can undermine children’s motivation and performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 33-52. Rogers, M. A., Theule, J., Ryan, B. A., & Keating, L. (2009). Parental involvement and children`s school achievement. Evidence for mediating processes. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 24(1), 34-57. Schöne, C., Dickhäuser, O., Spinath, B., & Stiensmeier-Pelster, J. (2002). Skalen zur Erfassung des schulischen Selbstkonzepts – SESSKO [Scales for the assessment of the academic self-concept]. Göttingen: Hogrefe. Stutz, F., Schaffner, E., & Schiefele, U. (2014). Factor Structure and Construct Validity of a Reading Motivation Questionnaire for Elementary School Students (Development of an Instrument Measuring Reading Motivation in Beginning Readers). Unpublished Manuscript. Potsdam: University of Potsdam.

Author Information

Frank Hellmich (submitting)

Paderborn University, Germany

Fabian Hoya (presenting)

University of Paderborn

Institute for Pedagogy

Paderborn

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