Patterns of differential feedback at the kindergarten level
Date
1982
Authors
Preece, Alison
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Abstract
This study was designed to investigate whether there are any quantitative and/or qualitative differences in the verbal feedback delivered to male and female kindergarten students by their teachers. More specifically, the study was designed to determine whether any evidence of the patterns of differential feedback reported by Dweck, Davidson, Nelson and Enna (1978) in their analysis of teacher feedback directed to fourth and fifth grade students would appear at the kindergarten level.
The subjects were one hundred kindergarten children in five classes in School District 65, and their five teachers. The subjects were observed over a six week period for a total of 75 hours, All instances of evaluative teacher feedback (verbal only) directed to individual students were classified, coded and recorded on a tally sheet.
Feedback was categorized according to the sex of the student who received it, whether it was positive or negative, whether it was conduct or work related, and if work-related, whether it referred to the 'form' or 'substance' of the work. The context in which the feedback occurred was also recorded, Data were tallied and totalled for each observational session, totalled and averaged for each school, and totalled and averaged for all 25 observational sessions. Differences found between the distribution of the various categories of feedback to either boys or girls, and between the differences in the allocation of the same types of feedback to both boys and girls, were tested by chi-square analysis.
The data reveal that boys received a greater proportion of the teacher feedback than did girls, The boys received more negative than positive feedback while the opposite was true for girls. Both boys and girls received more work-related than conduct-related feedback, but the girls received a significantly higher proportion of work-related feedback than did the boys. Both boys and girls received significantly more positive feedback for work-related matters rather than for conduct, and significantly more negative feedback for conduct-related matters than for work-related ones. Both boys and girls received significantly more positive feedback for 'substance' related matters rather than for those related to 'form'. Approximately equivalent proportions of negative 'substance' related and negative 'form'-related feedback were received by both the boys and the girls. Boys and girls were not responded to differently by their teachers with regard to these two feedback categories. The findings from this study, therefore, are not consistent with those reported by Dweck et al. (1978).
Context was found to be significantly related to the amount and kind of feedback received by the students.
The educational implications of the findings were briefly discussed and suggestions were made for further research.