作業難度與回饋方式對歸因的影響

THE EFFECTS OF TEACHER'S FEEDBACK AND TASK DIFFICULTY ON ATTRIBUTIONAL JUDGMENTS FOR SUCCESS AND FAILURE

教師常使用口頭的稱讚與責備來管理學童的行為，一般認為：稱讚可以使學童表現出更多的良好行為，責備則可減少不良行為的發生。但是，最近有關歸因的研究提出了一個值得注意的現象：當兩人同時成功，而只有其中一人受到稱讚時，受稱讚者會被評量為具有較低的能力。根據過去在成就情境中的歸因研究發現：當個人做出低能力的歸因時，會降低個人對日後成功的預期，並使他在遭遇困難時容易退縮或放棄嘗試。本研究使用一次教師發數學考卷給四個故事主角的過程為故事，故事中操弄了考試的難度（困難或容易）、故事主角的考試結果（成功或失敗）及教師的回饋方式（中性或非中性的回饋），請256名國小五、六年級的學童，一邊閱讀故事，一邊評量能力、努力、運氣及作業難度等四個歸因因素，對造成故事主角此次成功或失敗的重要性，並且評量故事主角平時的數學能力和平時在數學方面的努力。研究結果發現：教師的回饋顯著地影響歸因結果：成功時，受稱讚者的成功較易被認為是努力造成，未受稱讚者的成功則較被歸因是能力所致；此外，未受稱讚者被評為有較高的數學能力。失敗時，未受責備者的失敗較被歸因為努力及運氣；而在一般能力與努力的評量上，未受責備者被評量為平時在數學方面努力較多的人，受責備者則被評量為平時數學能力較高者。在討論中，進一步探討教師回饋對學童的影響，探究作業難度未造成顯著影響的原因，以及提出對後續研究及教師應用的建議。

Teachers often use praise and blame to handle the behaviors of students. It is believed that praise can promote the students to behave themselves, and blame can decrease the students' misbehaviors. Recently, there are several studies revealed that when two persons both succeed at the same task, and only one of them is praised for his success, the one who is praised is perceived as the person whose ability is lower of the two. The studies, which are concerned with the attributions in the achievement context, reveal that when a person perceives himself as a low ability person, he will have less expectation toward future success, and will easily quit when faces obstacles. In this study, 256 fifth and sixth graders were asked to read a story. The stories describe the procedure that a teacher informs four students their test result after a math test. Test difficulty (easy or difficult), the test results of each student (success or failure), and teacher' s feedback (neutral or praise/blame) are manipulated in the story. The subjects were asked to read the story, to rate the importance of ability, effort, luck, and task difficult, which were responsible for the test result of each student, and to evaluate each student's general math ability and effort. The results indicated that the teacher's feedback significantly affected the attributions. When both succeed, the person receiving praise was perceived to be contributed to his effort. The other one, who receives the neutral feedback, was perceived to be contributed to his ability. The person who receives neutral feedback was perceived to have higher math ability than the one who is praised. When both fail, the failure of the person, who receives neutral feedback, was perceived to be contributed to his effort and luck. He was also perceived to have more effort in math but lower math ability than the one who is blamed. In the discussion, we discussed the effects of teacher's feedbacks to the students, and why task difficulty didn't reveal the significant effect. The suggestions to the teachers and the future studies are proposed.