Session Information
24 SES 07, Teacher Knowledge and Practices
Paper Session
Contribution
According to research findings, teacher praise seems to be the dominant form of feedback in primary schools (Bartels, 2015; Burnett & Mandel, 2010). Praise and its negative counterpart criticism can be generally divided into generic praise/ criticism (e.g. praising one’s ability/ ability-praise) and non-generic praise/ critisim (e.g. praising one’s effort/ effort-praise) (Cimpian, 2010; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002). Focusing on ability-praise (e.g. “You are really good at math.”), studies demonstrate that this kind of feedback is highly linked to domain-specific self-concept of ability (e.g. Bartels, 2016; Chen, Thompson, Kromrey & Chang, 2011) and thus it is argued to be a powerful tool to help children develop positive self-concepts (e.g. Craven, Marsh & Debus, 1991). However, there are some studies that support the assumption, that especially praise for ability might in a long-term be harmful for young learner’s motivation. It is proposed that while the positive effect of skill-related praise boosts self-confidence in abilities in the short term, the excessive use of skill-based praise causes the recipient of this message to increasingly interpret their existing skills to be particularly important for personal development and achievement (e.g. Brummelman, Crocker & Bushman, 2016). Furthermore findings from a primary school study suggested that also comforting words (e.g. “You can do other things better than math.”), focusing on individuals the abilities’ and intuitively be considered to be reinforcing, are actually interpreted negatively by primary school children and positively correlated with a lower self-concept of ability (Bartels, Pieper & Busch, accepted). Since teachers' preferred feedback practices are associated with the socio-cultural learning environment, it can be assumed that the feedback experience of young learners differs depending on culturally predominate values as well as socially and culturally shared beliefs. Regarding the beliefs of ability, research demonstrates that adults in western societies, rather tend to praise children for the abilities (Brummelman et al., 2016), whereas, especially in asian societies young learners are encouraged to believe in the improvement of the self and the strong impact of effort on development (Wong-On-Wing & Lui, 2007). Salili and Hau (1994) and Sun (2015) report that for example in China praise is considered to be harmful for children’s’ character, having a negative influence on children’s improvement and therefore more emphasis is placed on effort than on ability. Thus, effort praise given by teachers might be perceived more frequently among chinese children than among german primary school students. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the frequency with which a particular type of teacher praise is received by pupils might be a predictor for their self-concept of ability. The strength of the correlation should plausibly be explained by the preferred feedback practices of the certain culture. For these assumptions, however, there is no empirical evidence yet.
Therefore the aim of the present study is:
(a) to investigate the similarities and differences of perceived types of praise/criticism concerning the frequency with that the type of feedback is given by math-teachers, the self-concept of math-ability among german and chinese fourth-graders,
(b) to explore the association between the types of the perceived person-oriented praise/criticism and the self-concept of math-ability.
Based on empirical findings and theoretical assumptions, we proposed that:
(a) the perception of ability-praise and comfort-feedback would be lower among Chinese children than among German children, whereas the perception of praise for effort would be perceived more frequently among Chinese fourth-graders and
(b) the association between various types of praise/ criticism and self-concept of math-ability would be similar in both countries, hypothesizing that ability-praise would be positively associated with self-concept of math-ability, whereas comfort-feedback would be negatively associated with self-concept of math-ability.
Method
The sample was taken from first wave of data, collected within the cross-cultural longitudinal study “LoKi - Praise and criticism at primary school age – an international comparative study between China and Germany.” Data was collected in May and June 2018. Schools were selected considering their type, location and size. The back-translation method was used translating the questionnaire. Chinese Sample Participants of the study were n=443 fourth-graders (male=226; female=217) from Anhui province in South-East of China. The participants were recruited from three elementary schools. In total participants from eleven classes took part in the study (class Size: Min=18; Max=67). German Sample Participants in Germany were n=441 fourth-graders (male=211; female=229) from Lower-Saxony in Germany. In total 31 classes from 17 different school participated for the study (class size: Min=4; Max=28). Key Measures The self-concept of math-ability was assessed with a four-item scale (e.g. “I am good at math”; China =.85; Germany =.88). The two types of praise, ability-praise (e.g. “Does your teacher often say such sentences in math lessons? - Great, you're good at math.”; 4 Items; Germany: =.80 and China: =.82) and effort-praise (e.g. “Does your teacher often say such sentences in math lessons? - “You work hard in math.”; 3 Items; Germany: =.78 and China: =.86), were assessed as well as one type of criticism: comfort-feedback (e.g. “Does your teacher often say such sentences in math lessons? - You can do other things better than math.”; 3 Items; Germany: =.77 and China: =.61). Students responded on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from (4) yes, strongly agree to (1) no, do not agree. The results of an exploratory factor analysis indicate for the types of praise and criticism a three-factorial solution for the Chinese children and a two-factorial solution for the German children. In the German sample effort and ability praise were not considered as two distinct entities, whereas in the Chinese sample a differentiation of the expected three sub dimensions could be identified. These findings will be discussed.
Expected Outcomes
Results revealed that pupils from both countries report to receive more effort-praise than ability-praise. No statistically significant difference among German and Chinese fourth-graders, could be found concerning the perception of effort-praise, but regarding ability-praise. German pupils (M = 2.67, SD= .91) report on average to receive ability-oriented praise more frequently as compared with Chinese pupils (M = 2.53, SD= .93; t = -2.27, p <.001). Furthermore comfort-feedback is identified to be a frequently used type of feedback in both countries, thus, findings demonstrate that German pupils report to receive more frequently comfort-feedback (M = 2.36, SD=.99) compared to Chinese pupils (M = 2.16, SD = .85; t = -3.20, p<.001). Regarding self-concept of math-ability, German as well as Chinese children report relatively high assessments of their mathematical abilities, but on average the Chinese children estimate their mathematical abilities significantly lower than their German counterparts (t = - 5.23; p<.001). Moreover, a positive association between ability-praise and the self-concept of math-ability in both populations (Germany: r =.42, p<.001; China: r =.46, p<.001) could be found. However, a negative association between comfort-feedback and self-concept of math-ability was only found in the German sample (r = -.34, p<.001). A multiple regression showed that ability-praise and comfort-feedback statistically significantly predicted self-concept of math-ability among German fourth-graders (F (3,392) = 63.47, p<.001; R2=.32), whereas for the Chinese children only ability-praise is identified as a strong predictor for self-concept of math-ability (F (3,427) = 43.11, p<.001; R2=.23). Findings demonstrate that Chinese and German children differ concerning the perception of feedback, regarding the frequency and type of praise they obviously receive. Comfort-feedback given by their math-teachers seems to be harmful for German children, but not for Chinese. Consequences for teacher education and further research will be discussed.
References
Bartels, F. (2015). Implizite Fähigkeitstheorien im Grundschulalter. Bedingungen und Auswirkungen auf die Lernmotivation, das Bewältigungsverhalten und die Leistung. Bad Heilbrunn: Verlag Julius Klinkhardt. Bartels, F. (2016). Geschlechtsunterschiede in der Wahrnehmung von Rückmeldungen im Mathematikunterricht der Grundschule - Konsequenzen für das Fähigkeitsselbstkonzept von Mädchen und Jungen. In J. Halberstadt, L. Hilmers, T. Kubes & S. Weingraber (Hrsg.), (Un)typisch Gender Studies - neue interdisziplinäre Forschungsfragen (S. 192–212). Opladen: Budrich UniPress Ltd. Brummelman, E., Crocker, J. & Bushman, B. J. (2016). The Praise Paradox. When and Why Praise Backfires in Children With Low Self-Esteem. Child Development Perspectives, 10 (2), 111–115. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12171 Burnett, P. C. & Mandel, V. (2010). Praise and Feedback in the Primary Classroom. Teachers' and Students' Perspectives. Australian Journal of Educational & Developmental Psychology, 10, 145–154. Chen, Y.-H., Thompson, M. S., Kromrey, J. D. & Chang, G. H. (2011). Relations of Student Perceptions of Teacher Oral Feedback With Teacher Expectancies and Student Self-Concept. The Journal of Experimental Education, 79 (4), 452–477. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2010.547888 Cimpian, A. (2010). The impact of generic language about ability on children's achievement motivation. Developmental Psychology, 46 (5), 1333–1340. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019665 Craven, R. G., Marsh, H. W. & Debus, R. L. (1991). Effects of internally focused feedback and attributional feedback on enhancement of academic self-concept. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83 (1), 17–27. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.83.1.17 Henderlong, J. & Lepper, M. R. (2002). The effects of praise on children's intrinsic motivation. A review and synthesis. Psychological bulletin, 128 (5), 774. Salili, F. & Hau, K.‐T. (1994). The Effect of Teachers’ Evaluative Feedback on Chinese Students’ Perception of Ability. A cultural and situational analysis. Educational Studies, 20 (2), 223–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305569940200206 Sun, R. C.F. (2015). Teachers' experiences of effective strategies for managing classroom misbehavior in Hong Kong. Teaching and Teacher Education, 46, 94–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.11.005 Wong‐On‐Wing, B. & Lui, G. (2007). Culture, Implicit Theories, and the Attribution of Morality. Behavioral Research in Accounting, 19 (1), 231–246. https://doi.org/10.2308/bria.2007.19.1.231
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