Growth mindset-supportive teacher feedback in early elementary math classes: A naturalistic, observational study

Research has indicated that growth mindset development can have a valuable impact on the motivation and achievement of traditionally low-achieving students – especially in mathematics. Teachers stand to benefit students when they create a classroom environment supportive of a growth mindset by offering relevant and supportive feedback. The majority of research on feedback, however, has been conducted in either lab settings or through classroom interventions and has been restricted to a process vs. product feedback dichotomy. More recently, researchers have identified the need for naturalistic, observational studies of teacher and student interaction in the classroom context, however, to date, this has been done mainly on students in middle school. To address these gaps, the current study used an observational tool aimed to describe the kind of feedback teachers give in the early elementary context when students are just starting their academic careers. More specifically, using a sample of 4 recorded 1st grade mathematics lessons obtained from an online, mathematics, professional development website for elementary teachers, I employed Tunstall and Gipps’ (1996) feedback typology to examine the quantity and type of feedback given by teachers. Results indicated that teachers offer prolific amounts of feedback during whole class math lessons, the majority of which was growth-mindset-supportive. The amount of other types of feedback differed drastically by teacher and teaching method. The typology offers an improvement over the person/process dichotomy and provides a more in-depth understanding of teacher feedback than experimental measures. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2021

Author dc:creator

• Curry, Katy Sarah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bub, Kristen L

• growth mindset
• mathematics instruction
• teacher feedback
• early elementary
• naturalistic
• video

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2020 Katy Curry

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109345

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/109345