According to attributional theory, when the application of effort leads to success we praise the achievement. Effort and ability, however, are seen as compensatory and thus, paradoxically, being praised can lead to attributions of low ability. Our study investigates whether praise, not for academic performance, but for social classroom behavior,…

When providing feedback, teachers are concerned not only with the simple transmission of information, but also with motivational and interpersonal dynamics. To mitigate these concerns, teachers may inflate feedback by reducing negative or increasing positive content. The resulting difference between initial judgments and feedback may be even more…

Disruptive student behavior is a frequent part of school life, most often shown by male students and related to many negative academic outcomes. In this study, we examined the psychological benefits of engaging in disruptive behavior for low-achieving students from an attributional perspective. In an experimental vignette study of 178 ninth…

Teacher judgments of student performance might be biased by stereotypes, which can result in disadvantages for members of negatively stereotyped social groups. On the basis of the shifting standards theory, we examined gender and ethnic biases in student teachers' judgments. According to this theory, whether such judgment biases are masked or…

Girls presently outperform boys in overall academic success. Corresponding gender stereotypes portray male students as lazy and troublesome and female students as diligent and compliant. The present study investigated whether these stereotypes impact teachers' perceptions of students and whether students' visible enactment of their gender at…