The effect of visual performance feedback on teacher use of behavior-specific praise.
A single after-class graph quickly doubles teacher praise for every student in the room.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three elementary teachers met for 20-minute group chats after school.
Each got a one-page graph showing how much behavior-specific praise they gave that day.
The sheet also listed two praise examples they could try tomorrow.
Researchers counted praise during reading and math blocks for four weeks.
What they found
All three teachers doubled their praise for the target student within five days.
Praise also rose for every other kid in the room, even though no one asked for that.
Gains stayed high for the rest of the study.
How this fits with other research
Dukhayyil et al. (1973) first showed that feedback plus kind words from an experimenter lifts teacher praise. Plant et al. (2007) swapped the kind words for a simple visual sheet and still got the same jump.
LaBrot et al. (2021) later copied the visual sheet trick with school-psychology grad students and saw the same spike.
Falligant et al. (2025) added brief in-person coaching after group training. Most staff needed that extra step to master new skills. Plant et al. (2007) shows that, for praise, the sheet alone is often enough.
Why it matters
You can raise teacher praise without long workshops. Print yesterday’s praise count, hand it over, and suggest two examples. Five minutes of prep, big classroom payoff.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study evaluated the effects of visual performance feedback (VPF) on teacher use of behavior-specific praise. In addition to receiving individual VPF, teachers participated in group consultation focused on increasing competence in the use of behavior-specific praise. Three general education elementary teachers and six students participated in the study. Classroom peer composite data were also collected. Teacher and student behaviors were monitored across baseline and VPF conditions in a multiple baseline design. The results indicated that VPF resulted in an increase in behavior-specific praise for participating students across all teachers relative to baseline. Additionally, teachers increased their use of behavior-specific praise with classroom peers. The findings highlight the need for direct assessment of intervention implementation and for the collection of peer data to identify collateral intervention effects.
Behavior modification, 2007 · doi:10.1177/0145445506288967