Attributions of Success, Grade Level, and Gender as Factors in Choral Students' Perceptions of Teacher Feedback

Abstract

This study examined 120 secondary school choral students' perceptions of teacher feedback behaviors as a function of students' attributions of success in vocal music, grade level, and gender. Subjects rated 29 audiotaped excerpts of applied vocal instruction that featured teacher approval or disapproval behaviors. The tape presented four excerpts each for approval-improvement, approval-information, approval-control, person-praise, personal approval, norm-referenced approval, and five excerpts of disapproval. Subjects rated excerpts using four 7-point scales: good-bad, effective-ineffective, sincere-insincere, and appropriate-inappropriate. Subjects provided information concerning their attributions of success in vocal music. Responses were coded as internal-stable (ability), internal-unstable (effort), external-stable (task difficulty), and external-unstable (luck). Results indicated that (a) frequencies for students' internal-unstable and internal-stable attributions were greater than frequencies for external (stable or unstable) attributions; (b) students' attributions of success and failure were generally consistent; (c) attributions did not differ significantly by grade level or gender; (d) significant within-subjects differences were found across the approval categories with approval-improvement receiving the highest mean rating and norm-referenced approval receiving the lowest mean rating; (e) females rated approval-improvement, approval-control, person-praise, and personal approvals significantly higher than did males; (f) male subjects rated disapproval behaviors significantly higher than did females; and (g) perception of teacher feedback behaviors did not differ significantly according to students' internal/external attributions or grade level.