ABSTRACT

Conventional wisdom is that for every one reprimand or corrective, four specific positive feedback statements to that student are desirable. This chapter describes the effective use of feedback to support students' pro-social skills. It explores examples and non-examples of applications of feedback across a range of grade levels and instructional contexts. The chapter also describes strategies that teachers can use to implement high rates of specific, positive feedback throughout each school day. Like positive feedback, instructive feedback has evidenced success across a range of ages and learners, including those with mild, moderate, and severe disabilities, and across a range of skills and behaviors. Unlike positive and instructive feedback, corrective feedback is used to correct social or academic behavior errors by highlighting the error and then providing information on how to correct it. Hence, corrective feedback is preferred over reprimands, as it is more likely to result in sustained behavioral change. Effective feedback also must be contingent on a target behavior.