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The use of teacher praise in the classroom has been the subject of empirical research since the 1970s, but despite more than four decades of research on the use of teacher praise, large gaps continue to exist in the literature. Clarifying the role and benefit of teacher praise is particularly important because the use of positive, proactive strategies is promoted by large‐scale behavior initiatives (e.g., Positive Behavior Interventions and Support). The goal of this review is to summarize the existing research on teacher praise, including rates of praise, types of praise, and the association between praise and student behavior. In addition to summarizing the extant literature, future directions for research are highlighted. This review reveals that there is a need for current, large‐scale studies with consistent operational definitions that measure the rate of different types of praise across different grades and instructional activities, while simultaneously measuring student behavioral outcomes.
Jenkins et al. (Mon,) studied this question.