IS THE WORLD AN ORDERLY PLACE - A REVIEW OF TEACHER COMMENTS AND STUDENT-ACHIEVEMENT

In 1958, Page conducted a large multiple experiment: 74 teachers gave one class its normal quiz, scored and graded it in the usual way, assigned three comment treatments to students in stratified-random blocks, and then reported scores from the next objective quiz. There was a highly significant effect of comments. Others have borrowed some study features, with results that have appeared mixed. Here, a critical overall analysis shows much agreement with the ordered hypothesis of comments and with specified comments over no comments (p < .01). Despite great variety of designs and subtlety of effect, results broadly support teachers who comment. A typical effect size is demonstrated for ranks, and lessons are taken about the proper strategies for designs and the future of such research.