We postulated that teachers' expectations affect students' achievement via the evaluative feedback teachers give to them. To register the feedback we developed an observational instrument of 10 verbal and 10 nonverbal categories. Teachers show more negative nonverbal feedback (head movements) towards children who are thought not to be able to improve their performance than to children considered underachievers. On the other hand, teachers seem to compensate in their verbal feedback by giving the former children twice as much personally expressed verbal praise' as the children considered underachievers.
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