Natural Rates of Teachers' Approval and Disapproval in Italian Primary and Secondary Schools Classroom

Since the 1960s, researchers have been demonstrating the power of teacher approval on the behaviour of students. Despite the huge amount of research in English-speaking countries the natural rates of approval and disapproval had never been investigated in Italian schools. The aims of this study were: (a) to examine the proportionality of different types of verbal feedback used by teachers; (b) to examine the relationship between teachers use of verbal feedback and the behaviour of students. A total of 314 observations in schools were conducted. As regards teacher verbal behaviour: we found that both approval and disapproval rates per minute declined and neutral verbal behaviour (instructions, expositions, explanations) increased as the age of the pupils increases. There was a clear difference between primary school and secondary school teachers.