Fostering Social Integration Through Teacher Feedback in the Classroom

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Christian Huber; Dr. Markus Spilles
• Subject Area: General Education and History of Education ; Developmental and Educational Psychology
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 572982305

Being accepted by social groups is a fundamental human need and a crucial prerequisite for positive learning and behavioral development in school. On the other hand, social exclusion is associated with numerous risks, such as weak academic performance, school absenteeism, or verbal and physical aggression. Despite extensive research on the extent, risk factors, and consequences of social exclusion, evidence-based intervention approaches are still lacking. The proposed work program aims to address this research gap. The theoretical foundation is the social referencing theory, which suggests that students choose their interaction partners based on public teacher feedback. According to this theory, positive teacher feedback would increase the chances of good social integration, while negative teacher feedback would reduce them. In the past, experimental and field studies have shown that this assumption holds true. However, it is unclear how the social integration of students could be improved by consciously controlling teacher feedback. Therefore, the planned study will examine whether teachers can sustainably improve the social integration of poorly integrated students by increasing their positive feedback in the classroom. A quasi-experimental experimental-control group design with pre-, post-, and follow-up assessments will be implemented. The study includes both third and fourth-grade elementary school classes. In the 15 experimental classes, a systematic feedback manipulation will take place over four weeks, while the 15 control classes will continue with regular lessons. Target students within the experimental classes are two poorly socially integrated boys and girls who receive little positive teacher feedback in the perception of their classmates. As part of the feedback manipulation, at the end of each class, the teacher will give public positive feedback to two students, resulting in ten additional feedbacks on one day with five class hours. With the help of an implementation plan, it is ensured that the number of positive feedback towards the target students is gradually increased by a factor of 2 compared to their classmates. A four-hour teacher training ensures the correct implementation of the manipulation. The manipulation effects, partly on the dyad level, will be evaluated through multilevel regression analyses. It is assumed that the social integration of the target students will align with the social integration of their classmates, while the distance between the potential target students and their classmates in the control classes remains constant. After the study, teachers in the control group also have access to the materials and participate in the training sessions.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants