Effects of Performance Feedback on Teachers' Self-Evaluations

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of performance feedback on self-evaluations with a similar task. 212 first-year female teachers from a large Southeastern school district completed two brief classroom-management tasks and rated their own performance on these tasks. Each task included five questions pertaining to specific problems of classroom management. Subjects rated themselves as solving the tasks either “well” or “poorly.” Feedback for the first task was manipulated so that half of those who rated themselves as performing well were given either positive or negative feedback. Similarly, half of those who rated themselves as performing poorly were given either negative or positive feedback. As hypothesized, type of feedback for the first task significantly affected the teachers' self-evaluations on the second task. Implications of these results are discussed.