Two secondary schools investigate whether tutor feedback that praises effort increases pupils' persistence with difficult work.
At North School, 100 pupils were randomly allocated either to effort-praise tutoring or to study-planning tutoring of the same length. The tutors who delivered the sessions also rated the pupils' persistence.
At South School, 100 pupils chose either effort-praise tutoring or regular tutor time. Staff who rated the pupils' persistence were not told which option each pupil had chosen.
| School and group | Positive persistence ratings before tutoring | Positive persistence ratings after tutoring |
|---|---|---|
| North: effort-praise tutoring | 24 out of 50 | 37 out of 50 |
| North: study-planning tutoring | 23 out of 50 | 28 out of 50 |
| South: effort-praise tutoring | 19 out of 50 | 35 out of 50 |
| South: regular tutor time | 21 out of 50 | 25 out of 50 |
Explain what the results and design information show about how confidently each school can claim that effort-praise tutoring caused an improvement in persistence. In your answer, calculate how much larger the difference between the groups' changes was at South School than at North School.
104 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 2.2 Theories/Explanations, covering 2.2.1 Piaget's four invariant stages, 2.2.2 Assimilation and accommodation, 2.2.3 Object permanence, animism, egocentrism, 2.2.4 Decentration, reversibility, conservation; criticisms, 2.2.5 Cognitive Development research study: Piaget (1952), 2.2.6 Dweck's fixed and growth mindsets, 2.2.7 Willingham's learning styles and meaning; criticisms, and 2.2.8 Learning research study: Blackwell et al. (2007). Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.