In a previous study, parent-child praise was observed in natural interactions at home when children were 1, 2, and 3 years of age. Children who received a relatively high proportion of process praise (e.g., praise for effort and strategies) showed stronger incremental motivational frameworks, including a belief that intelligence can be developed…

This research examined if mothers' day-to-day praise of children's success in school plays a role in children's theory of intelligence and motivation. Participants were 120 children (mean age = 10.23 years) and their mothers who took part in a 2-wave study spanning 6 months. During the first wave, mothers completed a 10-day daily interview in…

The purpose of this case study was to determine the perceptions of students, faculty, and parents about the JostensRenaissance Program® (JRP) on overall school climate in a New Jersey middle school. The population for this research consisted of fifth through eighth grade students who participated in the JRP during the 2011-2012 school year, as…

This study used dinnertime observational data to investigate parental praise in Chinese-immigrant and European-American families. Three process models of praise with distinctive communicative content were uncovered. Two models focus on adherence to parental expectations, which promote the development of an interdependent self…

The current study examined students' perceptions of the effects of different forms of instructional feedback on their performance, motivation, and emotion. Forty-nine students attending an eastern US university participated in focus group discussions. The groups explored students' reactions to grades, praise, and computer versus instructor…

Taking children off reinforcement programs apparently does not have the detrimental effects that many believe it to have. In this study, students who had been removed from a reinforcement program two years earlier made significantly greater gains in reading achievement than students who had not been involved in any reinforcement program.…

On the college level controllable consequences that are likely to improve achievement are scarce and often unimaginatively used. Student assessment and grades have typically been emphasized. The purpose of this study was to determine if achievement could be improved by providing an increase and choice of contingencies following academic…

The reward structure of a classroom refers to the rules under which students are reinforced for academic achievement. Various types of interpersonal reward structures--competitive, cooperative, and independent--are discussed. Studies of the effects of rewards on performance, attitudes and interpersonal relations are reviewed, emphasizing…

The high-school problem is nothing new. In one of his early writings, James S. Coleman, the brilliant sociologist who later wrote the famous report on the equality of opportunity for education (the "Coleman Report") and the first study of public and private schools, identified the essential high-school problem: "our adolescents today are cut off,…

This experiment was designed to assess whether the expected and actual performance of black and white students on an academic task would be differentially affected by the race of the successful models observed. Since males and females might not be equally influenced by the modeling effects, separate analyses were planned for males and females of…

Results of this study provided indirect support for Marshall's (1965) Hypothesis with regard to the informational versus motivational properties of punishment (punishment of specific responses has discriminative or informative value, whereas punishment applied to the situation may have primary motivational value). (Author)

The use of token-reinforcer systems is discussed, with particular reference to the Staats Motivation Achievement Reading Technique. (NH)

Sixteen beginning analytic geometry and calculus classes (442 students) followed eight testing regimes for one academic quarter. Three aptitude subgroups were identified in each class. Classes to which daily quizzes were given achieved significantly higher on a specially constructed test than those which had only a single midterm examination.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relative effectiveness of three different types of reinforcement strategies on spelling achievement among a sample of disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged fourth grade public school pupils. The three reinforcement strategies employed involved a concrete reward (candy), a token or symbolic reward…