This small scale qualitative study investigated teachers' and students' perceptions of praise and feedback in the classroom using structured interviews and classroom observation. A case study approach was used whereby students and teachers from one school participated. Some 56 students and five teachers were interviewed individually or in small groups. The findings suggested that several factors need to be considered when using praise and feedback in the primary classroom. Careful deliberation should be given to the type of praise and feedback used by teachers in their classrooms and when and how it should be used. Younger students prefer 'ability' feedback, and as they grow older their preference for 'effort' feedback increases. Most importantly, general, non-targeted praise was most commonly used in the classroom, but this type of praise is not effective because it is not linked to a specific behaviour or targeted to the successful completion of a task. The results of this study suggest that teachers should use less general, non-targeted praise, more effort and ability feedback, and give more ability than effort feedback to younger students (grades 1-4) and more effort than ability feedback to older students (grades 5-7).
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