Ask teachers to expect more, and their feedback grows richer — a study of nearly 1,000 classrooms

A single sentence of framing can change what a student hears. In a study of nearly 1,000 elementary and middle-school teachers across the USA, led by researchers at USC, UT San Antonio and NYU, teachers prompted to communicate high expectations and confidence in their students gave noticeably more detailed, useful feedback on student work. The study, published in Educational Researcher, is the first to show the prompt changes the substance of feedback, not just its tone. It also surfaced subtle differences in how feedback varied between student groups — evidence schools can use to make encouragement more even-handed.

SDG 4 · Quality education — Mechanism: behaviour campaign