High Skill/High Self-Esteem

     When teaching students who have acquired a high skill level and who have good self-esteem and self-confidence, the instructor should strive to provide as little feedback as possible.  In fact, often these students may become frustrated with too much feedback because they believe they know the information and think the instructor is not recognizing this level of knowledge.  Feedback regarding correction should be limited to asking the student what he or she recognized about the performance and what can be improved upon.  If the student does not recognize the error, the instructor can then help the student develop recognition by asking specific questions regarding that aspect of the student's performance.
     For these students, praise should be given on an intermittent reinforcement schedule which is to praise on a periodic basis rather than for every performance.  This allows the student to develop more intrinsic motivation for the performance.  In addition, praise can be focused more generally on their ability to recognize errors and to self-correct errors in order to reinforce this ability.