Self-determination in the kindergarten classroom: understanding the role of the teacher's utilization of 'precise praise'
The ways in which teachers use language to interact with their students can have significant implications for children’s academic and behavioral outcomes. It has long been suggested that praise is an important teaching strategy, especially in early education classrooms. However, not all types of pra...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2022
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| _version_ | 1826308871156662272 |
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| author | Hagopian, A |
| author2 | Nag, S |
| author_facet | Nag, S Hagopian, A |
| author_sort | Hagopian, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | The ways in which teachers use language to interact with their students can have significant implications for children’s academic and behavioral outcomes. It has long been suggested that praise is an important teaching strategy, especially in early education classrooms. However, not all types of praise may result in the desired classroom outcomes. Using a newly operationalized term for praise that conveys pedagogically relevant information, i.e., ‘precise praise,’ we developed and delivered a professional development (PD) program for kindergarten teachers and explored relationships between teachers’ precise praise usage and their students’ psychological need satisfaction of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Teacher participants were 13 general education kindergarten teachers from a public-charter school system that operates across the southern and southwestern United States. All teachers had high confidence with the language/literacy curriculum (M=8.62, SD=0.65), which was the target subject of the PD intervention. Exploratory in nature, a within-subjects design was adopted to address three main research questions: (1) Is there a change in kindergarten teachers’ utilization of precise praise following their participation in a fully remote, three-session PD coaching program? (2) Does teachers’ change in practice (i.e., increased precise praise usage) predict students’ psychological needs satisfaction of competence, autonomy, and relatedness, as outlined by self-determination theory, measured at a one-week follow-up? (3) Do teacher participants report experiencing their own needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness as met during the PD program? A repeated-measures ANCOVA model revealed that the PD program was successful at increasing teachers’ precise praise usage over the 5–6-week intervention period, after controlling for teachers’ own expectations for change (p < .001). There were positive correlations between teachers’ precise praise usage and student autonomy and relatedness that were approaching significance, however linear regressions to test whether increased precise praise usage predicted students’ psychological needs satisfaction at follow-up did not yield significant results. Responses on a theoretically-based questionnaire confirmed that teacher participants experienced their own psychological need satisfaction met throughout the PD program. Future research is needed to establish a linkage between teachers’ precise praise usage and students’ psychological need satisfaction, but the study presents interesting new evidence for effective ways that PD can be delivered to teachers, such as fully remote PD designs that are responsive to the psychological needs of a heterogenous teacher workforce. Implications and futures directions for research on praise, teacher professional growth, and psychological need satisfaction are discussed.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:27:24Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:6dd61b37-e193-4c35-9bd3-6109b2abd360 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:27:24Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:6dd61b37-e193-4c35-9bd3-6109b2abd3602022-11-25T09:02:51ZSelf-determination in the kindergarten classroom: understanding the role of the teacher's utilization of 'precise praise'Thesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_bdccuuid:6dd61b37-e193-4c35-9bd3-6109b2abd360EducationQuantitative researchEnglishHyrax Deposit2022Hagopian, ANag, SThe ways in which teachers use language to interact with their students can have significant implications for children’s academic and behavioral outcomes. It has long been suggested that praise is an important teaching strategy, especially in early education classrooms. However, not all types of praise may result in the desired classroom outcomes. Using a newly operationalized term for praise that conveys pedagogically relevant information, i.e., ‘precise praise,’ we developed and delivered a professional development (PD) program for kindergarten teachers and explored relationships between teachers’ precise praise usage and their students’ psychological need satisfaction of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Teacher participants were 13 general education kindergarten teachers from a public-charter school system that operates across the southern and southwestern United States. All teachers had high confidence with the language/literacy curriculum (M=8.62, SD=0.65), which was the target subject of the PD intervention. Exploratory in nature, a within-subjects design was adopted to address three main research questions: (1) Is there a change in kindergarten teachers’ utilization of precise praise following their participation in a fully remote, three-session PD coaching program? (2) Does teachers’ change in practice (i.e., increased precise praise usage) predict students’ psychological needs satisfaction of competence, autonomy, and relatedness, as outlined by self-determination theory, measured at a one-week follow-up? (3) Do teacher participants report experiencing their own needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness as met during the PD program? A repeated-measures ANCOVA model revealed that the PD program was successful at increasing teachers’ precise praise usage over the 5–6-week intervention period, after controlling for teachers’ own expectations for change (p < .001). There were positive correlations between teachers’ precise praise usage and student autonomy and relatedness that were approaching significance, however linear regressions to test whether increased precise praise usage predicted students’ psychological needs satisfaction at follow-up did not yield significant results. Responses on a theoretically-based questionnaire confirmed that teacher participants experienced their own psychological need satisfaction met throughout the PD program. Future research is needed to establish a linkage between teachers’ precise praise usage and students’ psychological need satisfaction, but the study presents interesting new evidence for effective ways that PD can be delivered to teachers, such as fully remote PD designs that are responsive to the psychological needs of a heterogenous teacher workforce. Implications and futures directions for research on praise, teacher professional growth, and psychological need satisfaction are discussed. |
| spellingShingle | Education Quantitative research Hagopian, A Self-determination in the kindergarten classroom: understanding the role of the teacher's utilization of 'precise praise' |
| title | Self-determination in the kindergarten classroom: understanding the role of the teacher's utilization of 'precise praise' |
| title_full | Self-determination in the kindergarten classroom: understanding the role of the teacher's utilization of 'precise praise' |
| title_fullStr | Self-determination in the kindergarten classroom: understanding the role of the teacher's utilization of 'precise praise' |
| title_full_unstemmed | Self-determination in the kindergarten classroom: understanding the role of the teacher's utilization of 'precise praise' |
| title_short | Self-determination in the kindergarten classroom: understanding the role of the teacher's utilization of 'precise praise' |
| title_sort | self determination in the kindergarten classroom understanding the role of the teacher s utilization of precise praise |
| topic | Education Quantitative research |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hagopiana selfdeterminationinthekindergartenclassroomunderstandingtheroleoftheteachersutilizationofprecisepraise |