A recent study published in the journal Educational Researcher indicates that asking teachers to explicitly communicate high expectations and confidence in students' potential significantly alters the quality of their feedback. Led by Yasemin Copur-Gencturk of USC Rossier, Ian Thacker of The University of Texas at San Antonio, and Joseph Cimpian of New York University, the research involved nearly 1,000 elementary and middle school teachers across the United States. This marks the first study to demonstrate that such a prompt can change the substantive content of what educators tell students about their work.
The researchers utilized an approach known as "wise feedback," which pairs high performance standards with an assurance that students are capable of meeting them. In the experiment, teachers were randomly assigned to either provide feedback as they normally would or to communicate both high expectations and confidence in the student's ability. All participants reviewed identical mathematical solutions paired with images of white or Black boys and girls in an online classroom setting. This design allowed the team to measure how the prompt influenced feedback and whether effects varied based on perceived race and gender.
Overall, teachers who received the prompt provided more specific information regarding student performance compared to those who did not. Instead of offering generic praise like "good job," prompted educators were more likely to identify specific strengths and weaknesses in students' reasoning. However, this shift also led to an unintended consequence: prompted teachers praised a student's math ability nearly four times as often as the control group, with 8.1% of responses mentioning ability compared to 2.1%. Furthermore, while still rare at under 3% of responses, prompted teachers were more than five times as likely to question a student's ability or suggest they needed to work harder.
The study found that these comments on ability and effort revealed subtle disparities linked to race and gender. Although the differences were small in absolute terms, the prompt increased negative comments about the math ability of both Black and white girls. Additionally, criticism regarding effort significantly increased for every group except white boys. For instance, among prompted teachers, Black girls received negative feedback about their ability 3.3% of the time, compared to only 0.6% among teachers who were not prompted. Copur-Gencturk noted that when teachers focused explicitly on potential, their feedback reflected broader societal stereotypes about who is naturally capable in math and who requires more effort.
The researchers conclude that simply encouraging high expectations is insufficient without additional support for delivering specific, actionable feedback focused on mathematical thinking rather than assumptions about ability. Cimpian observed that even with the prompt, teachers rarely stated expectations outright or provided concrete strategies for improvement; they were more likely to point out what needed work but less likely to show students how to fix it. The team suggests that teacher preparation programs and professional development must focus on building these specific skills.
Limitations remain regarding whether these findings translate to everyday classrooms where teachers know their students personally, as the study involved feedback given to unknown students. Furthermore, it is unclear which types of professional learning best help teachers provide equitable feedback. Copur-Gencturk emphasized that continued research on race and gender in education is essential but noted that current challenges, including funding shortages and public communication pressures, are hindering efforts to study inequities and develop evidence-based solutions.
Sources: Phys.org.