Using an Effort Praise Intervention to Increase Achievement and Persistence in Reading

Author

Karin Leak Mussman, University of Nebraska at Omaha

Date of Award

2-1-2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Specialist in Education (Ed.S.)

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Lisa Kelly-Vance

Abstract

Effort praise, a type of general praise, leads to positive effects, such as higher achievement and persistence, when compared to ability praise and especially after failure outcomes. Effort praise focuses on reinforcing children for how hard they work on a task, as opposed to their outcome or ability level. The current study examined the effects of effort praise among at-risk first graders involved in a reading intervention. It was expected that the effort praise group would experience greater achievement and persistence compared to a control group who received non-attributional praise during the same reading intervention, but these hypotheses were not statistically supported. Possible reasons why effort praise was not found to produce greater results in this study are discussed.

Comments

An Ed.S. Field Project Presented to the Department of Psychology and the Faculty of the Graduate College University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Specialist in Education University of Nebraska at Omaha. Copyright Karin Leak Mussman February, 2006

Recommended Citation

Mussman, Karin Leak, "Using an Effort Praise Intervention to Increase Achievement and Persistence in Reading" (2006). Student Work. 2448.
https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/studentwork/2448