Teacher‐ versus researcher‐provided affirmation effects on students’ task engagement and positive perceptions of teachers

Values‐affirmation interventions have the potential to improve students’ experience and achievement in school. Researchers have proposed that these benefits are greatest when affirmation exercises are delivered by teachers (versus researchers). The current research provides an experimental test of whether describing affirmation activities as provided by teachers increases students’ engagement with the activities and students’ positive perceptions of their teachers. In a 2×2 field experiment, delivered to students during their first year of high school, students completed either an affirmation or matched control activity purportedly provided by either teachers or researchers. We found that describing affirmation activities as provided by teachers led students to perceive that teachers at their school were more interested in students’ broader lives outside of school and provided marginally more care and support to students, as compared to the same affirmation exercise described as provided by researchers and control activities attributed to either source. In addition, teacher‐provided affirmation activities prompted students to write more during the activities. The present study provides initial evidence that affirmation interventions can improve students’ perceptions of their relationship with their teachers—a potent driver of student success—but only when affirmation activities are seen as coming from and of interest to teachers.