The relationship of classmates-perceived teacher feedback and the social acceptance of second, third and fourth graders

Abstract

ABSTRACT In the past, some field studies have shown that in addition to student characteristics teacher feedback can influence the social acceptance of students. However, research gaps still exist: for example, most field studies use ratings by adult observers to measure feedback, even though following social referencing theory how students perceive feedback is more relevant. Furthermore, most field studies have not investigated whether the impact of teacher feedback on social acceptance is moderated by student development. The present study addresses two research questions: 1. Is classmates-perceived teacher feedback related with the social acceptance of students? 2. Does the relationship between teacher feedback and social acceptance increase according to the development of elementary-aged students? A cross-sectional survey was performed with n = 960 students from n = 16 second, n = 16 third and n = 16 fourth grade classes at n = 13 schools in Germany. The results of the multi-level analysis confirm the first hypothesis. By statistically controlling for gender and challenging behaviour, positive or negative teacher feedback clarified 3% (negative feedback) and 11-12% (positive feedback) more variance. With regard to research question 2, the relationship between positive teacher feedback and social acceptance increased according to the grade level.