Teacher praise to reprimand ratios during small and large group instruction: a video pilot study

Abstract

Few studies have examined teachers’ natural use of praise and reprimand in the absence of training, possibly due to the challenges of live data collection. This study sought to determine the feasibility of using technology to examine teachers’ use of praise and reprimand during class-wide and small group instruction in four elementary classrooms. In both settings, teachers used more general praise than behavior-specific praise and these differences were statistically significant. No differences were found between reprimand type, regardless of instructional context. During class-wide instruction, praise was delivered more frequently to individual students. No significant difference in praise or reprimand rates were observed between instructional contexts. Implications for training teachers to increase their praise-to-reprimand use and future research via video data collection are offered.