Praise encourages good student behaviour

Some positive reinforcement works far better than scolding criticism when it comes to boosting students’ performance.

Students get insights into the behaviour they should continue practising and not just the behaviour they should stop through targeted praise and student behaviour is best in classes where praise far exceeded reprimands.

These insights came from a United States study that observed over 2500 students across three US states over three years.

"Should children today be raised on praise? New research says yes!" said Dr Erin Leif, from Monash University.

"The authors draw on theory and research in education, positive behaviour support and applied behaviour analysis to inform the design of the study, and demonstrate that teachers can improve academic engagement in the classroom by explicitly teaching and richly reinforcing desirable social, emotional, and behavioural skills,” Dr Leif said.

Penny Van Bergen is an Associate Professor in Educational Psychology at Macquarie University who agrees. Her research interests include students' relationships with teachers, parents, and peers, and which social interactions best facilitate learning and development.

"There are also relationship benefits. Students who are praised more by their teacher are more likely to feel that the teacher likes and cares about them, and this makes it more likely that they'll also be more motivated in class."

The authors of the study were looking for some kind of 'tipping point' or optimal level of praise relative to reprimands. Instead of a tipping point they simply found the more praise the better.

“Sometimes, when students have stepped over a line, reprimands may be needed. But what the findings do clearly show is that more frequent praising is worthwhile," said Van Bergen.

"This is consistent with previous research about the value of positive feedback," said Associate Professor Helen Askell-Williams of Flinders University.

"The researchers’ practical advice is that teachers can gradually increase the ratio of their praises for on-task behaviours compared to reprimands."

Regarding the types of praise possible in the classroom, Askell-Williams added, "The researchers could have stressed more strongly that there are different types of praise: Emotion-based praise, such as 'I am proud of you' and information-laden praise linked directly to a task. Useful praise includes both emotion and information."

Image by insights unspoken under flicr cc attribution license