New study finds that asking teachers to set high expectations leads to more detailed feedback and reveals subtle bias
In a national study of nearly 1,000 elementary and middle school teachers, a simple “wise feedback” prompt made teachers’ comments more specific, but also surfaced small race- and gender-linked differences in feedback
University of Southern California
LOS ANGELES, CA—Prompting teachers to communicate high expectations and confidence in students’ potential leads them to give more detailed feedback, according to a new study led by Yasemin Copur-Gencturk, PhD, a professor of education at USC Rossier and co-director of the USC STEM Center; Ian Thacker, PhD, an associate professor of educational psychology at The University of Texas at San Antonio; and Joseph Cimpian, PhD , a professor of economics and education policy at New York University.
The study, which included nearly 1,000 elementary and middle school teachers across the United States, is the first to show that this kind of prompt can change the substance of what teachers tell students about their work.
The approach, known as “wise feedback,” pairs high performance standards with an assurance that students can meet them. Students who receive wise feedback tend to be more trusting and perform at higher levels.
“A relatively small prompt led teachers to give students more specific information about their performance, which is exactly what students need if feedback is going to support their learning,” said Copur-Gencturk. “Instead of a generic ‘good job,’ teachers pointed to the strengths and weaknesses in students’ reasoning.”
Testing the effect of a single prompt
The research team randomly assigned teachers to one of two groups. One group was asked to give feedback as they normally would in their classrooms. The other was asked to communicate both high expectations and confidence in the student’s ability to meet them.
All teachers reviewed the same set of mathematical solutions. Each was paired with the image of a randomly assigned White or Black girl or boy presenting the solution in an online classroom environment. That design let the researchers measure how the prompt changed teachers’ feedback and whether its effect depended on a student’s perceived race and gender.
More specific feedback, with an unintended consequence
Overall, prompted teachers gave more detailed feedback than teachers who responded as usual. They were more likely to name both what students had done well and what they still needed to work on.
The prompt also changed how often teachers commented on students’ ability and effort. Prompted teachers praised a student’s math ability nearly four times as often as teachers who weren’t prompted (8.1% of responses vs. 2.1%). The prompted teachers were also more than five times as likely to question a student’s ability or say the student needed to work harder, though those comments stayed rare, under 3% of responses.
“Asking teachers to emphasize a student’s potential nudged some of them to comment on the student instead of the work, more often praising or questioning their math ability,” said Cimpian. “Research has long shown that feedback about ability, even when it’s positive, can backfire once students hit a setback.”
Those ability and effort comments are also where differences by student race and gender emerged. Though the differences were small, the prompt increased negative comments about the math ability of both Black and White girls, and it significantly increased criticism of effort for every group except White boys. Among prompted teachers, for example, Black girls received negative feedback about their ability 3.3% of the time, compared with 0.6% among teachers who were not prompted.
“When teachers focused more explicitly on students’ potential, their feedback also reflected broader societal stereotypes about who is naturally capable in math and who needs to work harder,” said Copur-Gencturk. “It was a small effect that touched a small percentage of students, but even small slights and biases can snowball over time.”
The findings build on the team’s earlier research, which found similar patterns in teachers’ perceptions of students’ mathematical ability, and suggest those perceptions can also shape what teachers tell students directly.
“In our earlier work, we saw these patterns in what teachers believed about students’ math ability,” said Ian Thacker, associate professor of educational psychology at UT San Antonio, a USC Rossier alumnus, and a co-author of the study. “What’s new here is that those beliefs show up in what teachers actually say to students, which can shape their experience in math classrooms.”
What it means for teachers and schools
The researchers conclude that encouraging teachers to hold high expectations is not enough on its own. Teachers also need support in giving feedback that is specific, actionable and focused on students’ mathematical thinking rather than on assumptions about their ability or effort.
“Even when we asked them to, teachers rarely stated their expectations outright, and the prompt didn’t make them any more likely to give students a concrete strategy for improving,” said Cimpian. “Teachers became more likely to point out what needed work, but not to show students how to fix it. That’s a skill that teacher preparation programs and in-service professional development can help teachers build.”
The questions that remain
Because the study looked at feedback teachers gave to students they did not know, the team does not yet know whether teachers respond the same way in everyday classrooms, where they know their students and have more information about their understanding. It also remains unclear which kinds of professional learning best help teachers give feedback that is specific, actionable and equitable.
“Answering these questions requires continued research on race and gender in education,” said Copur-Gencturk. “Yet the current climate, from a lack of funding to pressure around public communication in this area, is making it harder to study inequities and develop evidence-based ways to address them. That limits our ability to create learning environments in which each and every student can flourish.”
The full study can be read here.
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