Praise Research Trends and Future Directions: Characteristics and Teacher Training

Abstract

Teacher praise is an effective classroom management tool. Training teachers to increase their use of praise can improve student disruptive and off-task behavior. The purpose of this article is to examine different characteristics of praise and the training methods used in the literature. Training methods with positive treatment acceptability and demonstrated impact are summarized. Results indicate that most research focuses on behavior-specific, verbal, and contingent praise delivered to individual students. Most training studies used a combination of two or more methods that most commonly included a didactic, feedback, or goal setting component. Only half of the training studies measured treatment acceptability and the majority of these ratings were positive. Most studies training teachers to use praise had positive results. More research focused on infrequently studied praise characteristics (e.g., gestures, physical, and private) and training methods (e.g., in vivo, self-monitoring, and incentives) is needed. Implications for future praise research are presented.