Corrective Feedback

1. Identify the challenging behavior/s you want to decrease.
2. When the student demonstrates the specified behavior, label the behavior and remind the student of the expectation (Aanya, you’re talking; our rule is to work quietly).
3. Next, implement a step to prevent the behavior in the future. This could include giving a consequence (e.g., removing a classroom dojo point), providing an opportunity for skills practice (Go back to the other end of the hallway and walk this time), giving a choice (You can take a break in the comfort corner or continue your work), or redirecting the behavior (Please get back to work).
4. Use Beacon progress monitoring tools to evaluate the extent to which this intervention is improving the target behaviors as intended.

• Research suggests that challenging behaviors are significantly less frequent in classrooms in which teachers give corrective feedback to at least 51% of challenging classroom behaviors, (i.e., respond to such behaviors more often than not), relative to classrooms in which teachers give corrective feedback to a lower portion of challenging behaviors. Additional evidence suggests that challenging behaviors drop even lower if teachers respond to 80% of challenging classroom behaviors.
• Verbal corrective feedback from the teacher is a great starting point and can be supplemented with non-verbal signs.

  • Consistency is important, so once you have decided to ignore something, it is important to ignore each time this behavior occurs and ignore until the behavior ends.
  • Never ignore a behavior that is harmful to the student or peers in the classroom.
  • Have a conversation with the student prior to your use of this strategy. Tell the student you are not intending to be mean even if it feels that way. Tell them you want to help them make requests in an appropriate way, so you will respond to appropriate requests but not requests made in a whining or rude voice.
  • Expect that the negative behavior may increase or worsen before improvements are seen. If a student has always received a response or attention for whining or complaining, they will be surprised by this change, and may increase their volume or frequency in hopes of getting attention. Responding in these moments may reduce distress temporarily, but will also reinforce the new, escalated behavior. In other words, the child learns that they have to whine louder or longer in order to get the teacher’s attention.
  • Be aware that just because you are ignoring the behavior, peers may not be. Peer attention is a powerful reinforcement. Thus, you may need to have a class discussion about the skill of ignoring and how and when students may need to try to use this skill (provide several examples, not just the one behavior of the target student). Then praise students when you see their attempts to ignore.
  • Talk to other adults about ignoring this same behavior in other contexts (e.g., other classes, the cafeteria). Cross-setting consistency will help to change the behavior more rapidly.

• Corrective feedback can be coupled with active ignoring. Active ignoring (i.e., removing attention from the student until the challenging behavior ends) should be used for mild attention seeking behaviors (e.g., muttering under one’s breath, complaining, whining). If you chose to ignore, it is important to consider the following principles:

  • Consistency is important, so once you have decided to ignore something, it is important to ignore each time this behavior occurs and ignore until the behavior ends.
  • Never ignore a behavior that is harmful to the student or peers in the classroom.
  • Have a conversation with the student prior to your use of this strategy. Tell the student you are not intending to be mean even if it feels that way. Tell them you want to help them make requests in an appropriate way, so you will respond to appropriate requests but not requests made in a whining or rude voice.
  • Expect that the negative behavior may increase or worsen before improvements are seen. If a student has always received a response or attention for whining or complaining, they will be surprised by this change, and may increase their volume or frequency in hopes of getting attention. Responding in these moments may reduce distress temporarily, but will also reinforce the new, escalated behavior. In other words, the child learns that they have to whine louder or longer in order to get the teacher’s attention.
  • Be aware that just because you are ignoring the behavior, peers may not be. Peer attention is a powerful reinforcement. Thus, you may need to have a class discussion about the skill of ignoring and how and when students may need to try to use this skill (provide several examples, not just the one behavior of the target student). Then praise students when you see their attempts to ignore.
  • Talk to other adults about ignoring this same behavior in other contexts (e.g., other classes, the cafeteria). Cross-setting consistency will help to change the behavior more rapidly.

• If a student is starting to escalate emotionally, corrective feedback may not be helpful. Students are less receptive to feedback when in this state and may escalate further if additional feedback is given. In these moments, we recommended that teachers use emotional management techniques. These can be taught using emotional management training.
• Providing public corrective feedback to one student or a group can be a good learning opportunity for other students. However, if a particular student is receiving corrective feedback significantly more often than other students, it is recommended that you consider providing some portion of the corrective feedback to this student more discreetly or privately, to reduce the formation of negative perceptions by peers and to help preserve the positive relationship between you and the student.
• Feedback is most effective when it occurs close in time to the challenging behavior. Students who exhibit frequent inattentive and/or impulsive behaviors have difficulty making cause-and-effect connections. Feedback at the point of performance provides the external supports that can compensate for their internal deficits in making cause-and-effect connections.
• If the behavior occurs with high frequency, consider selecting a specific time of day or setting to begin addressing it.
• See resources on the use of praise and pre-correction, as these interventions are well-paired with corrective feedback
• If you need help implementing or evaluating this intervention, it may be helpful to seek out consultation from your school mental health professional or intervention team leader.

Corrective feedback has been rated as “not evaluated” at both the elementary and secondary levels as it has not been rigorously evaluated. Therefore, we cannot determine a level of effectiveness.

Elementary: When corrective feedback was studied at the elementary level, it was paired with behavior-specific praise. Specifically, research indicated that it is ideal to have a higher number of praises for each instance of corrective feedback. This corrective feedback intervention coupled with praise resulted in increases in on-task behavior.

Secondary: Corrective feedback has not been rigorously studied as a standalone intervention among secondary students to determine its effectiveness.

Recommendations: If you choose to use corrective feedback to address your student’s presenting problems, we recommend pairing corrective feedback with praise and attempting to praise at a higher rate than you use corrective feedback.