Preschool Teacher\u27s Use of Praise: Comparing General, At-Risk, and Special Education Classrooms

The current study examined six preschool teachers\u27 natural use of praise. Two of the teachers taught in general education classrooms, two taught in at-risk classrooms, and two taught in special education classrooms. Over 10 hours (approximately 100 minutes in each classroom) of direct behavioral observation of teachers\u27 use of praise were conducted across classrooms. Results did not indicate that teachers\u27 use of praise was statistically different based on classroom type (i.e., general, at-risk, and special education). However, special education teachers used twice as many praise statements compared to teachers in general education and at-risk classrooms and the effect sizes for these differences were large, suggesting that results would have reached significance with a larger sample size. Across all preschool classrooms, teachers used more general praise statements compared to behavior-specific praise statements. This difference was statistically significant. Lastly, teachers delivered more praise to individual and large groups of students compared to small groups of students, which was a statistically significant difference