Background/Purpose
According to Cognitive Evaluation Theory, students with higher perceived competence (PC) are likely to have higher intrinsic motivation (Williams & Gill, 1995). Informational Corrective Feedback (ICF) is commonly used by teachers, but we do not know the influence of ICF on student PC. The purpose of this study was to determine if PC differences exist between gender and skill experience after being given ICF or no feedback (NF) during a learning task.
Method
Participants (n=189) from two middle schools in Florida were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions in small groups of 3-5 and completed a pre-task question ranking their lacrosse experience as low or high on a Likert type scale. Participants then completed an unfamiliar lacrosse shooting task receiving only ICF or NF from the researcher/teacher. Participants then completed a post-task PC questionnaire based on the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Cronbach's alpha=.81; McCauley, Duncan, & Tamman, 1989).
Analysis/Results
A 2 (gender) x 2 (high/low lacrosse experience) x 2 (post-task PC) factorial ANOVA revealed differences [F(1,189)=5.214, p=.006] between student lacrosse experience and no PC differences between feedback type [F(1,189)=1.241, p=.267] or gender [F(1,189)=.017, p=.896]. Independent T-tests revealed a significant difference in PC [F(1,93)=13.195, p=.000] by amount of lacrosse experience. No other differences were found.
Conclusions
Results from this study indicate that higher PC is related to skill experience in lacrosse when teachers provide abundant ICF. Although further research is warranted, student skill level should be an important consideration for teachers in conjunction with the type of feedback they provide to students.