Do we need to train teachers how to administer praise? Self-worth theory says we do

This paper examines recent findings concerned with the self-worth theory of achievement motivation. This theory states that certain students (known as self-worth protective students) perform poorly when a negative outcome is likely to reflect low ability, but perform well in situations in which poor performance can be attributed to a factor which is unrelated to ability. The paper traces the development and maintenance of self-worth protection to attributional messages implicit in several kinds of unproductive evaluative feedback used by teachers. The adverse psychological effects of these attributional messages are compounded by personality variables associated with self-worth protective students. These psychological effects in turn exacerbate the underachievement of these students. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.