Effect of Daily Teacher Feedback on Subsequent Motivation and Mental Health Outcomes in Fifth Grade Students: A Person-Centered Analysis

Implementing effective prevention practices and programs that are responsive to the needs of individuals but based solely upon the findings from variable-centered methods presents several limitations. due to numerous risk factors, pathways, and unobserved influences. One such understudied influence, motivation, is masked by variable-centered statistical methods. Motivation is a person-level characteristic that influences treatment outcomes.

Because feedback in academic settings is commonly provided by adults to students, it is important to see how the adult presents feedback may influence how it is received or that students’ characteristics influence the uptake of feedback. Motivational Interviewing theory suggests that motivation is influenced by the interpersonal context in which it is discussed.

One intervention guided by the principles of motivational interviewing is the self-monitoring and regulation training strategy (SMARTS). This intervention provides performance and discrepancy feedback to students with challenging behaviors. Divided into three phases: training, self-monitoring/feedback, and processing, the SMARTS curriculum is delivered by student support personnel using 10 scripted lessons. Following training, students begin daily self-monitoring where both students and teachers monitor students’ performance each hour of the day on their individualized goals. Each day, prior to this performance evaluation, students respond to three motivational prompts scaled from 1 (not at all) to 10 (very ready). These prompts measure how rested the students feel, how positive their mood is, and how ready they are to accomplish their goal. Measures of student daily readiness, negative teacher feedback, social-emotional health outcomes using the BASC, Student-Teacher Relations were collected throughout this study.

The purpose of this paper was to demonstrate the use of an alternative person-centered approach, group iterative multiple model estimation (GIMME), to model change over time. This model focuses on the interdependence of daily student motivation levels and teacher feedback and their relations to student outcomes over time. The GIMME statistical model looks at person level responses to negative teacher feedback with the student’s motivational ratings the following day. Data was tested from 58 5th grade students participating in a study of the impact of the (SMARTS) self-monitoring and regulation training.

Overall, the study had high rates of student and teacher agreement about ongoing performance scores. However, results identified a group of students whose daily motivation and readiness for change was adversely impacted by negative teacher feedback the day before. For these students, they were more likely than their peers to experience high levels of depression and internalization scores.

Consistent with MI, the language and behaviors that adults use while proving feedback to youth will influence future motivation. Some motivationally oriented practice suggestions include using task-specific and constructive feedback to positively influence student behaviors. Providing feedback to students who may be sensitive to this type of feedback and research implications of these findings are discussed.