Not precisely. Because red is traditional, so pretty much ALL teachers used red. That's 100%. None used other colors.
If you had 6 teachers in school, you would get red ink from 6 of them.
If, however, all of your teachers picked any ink color except black or pencil, then you would get teal ink (for instance) from 1 out of 6 of them. That's 1/6 exposure to negative comments in teal, vs. 6/6 exposure to negative comments in red, previously. As a result, students will not have as strong of an association between the color and the negative comments.
It's like training a dog. If you wave a white flag at a dog and then hit it with a stick, the dog will quickly learn that white flag=bad. It takes about 5 times as many positive reinforcements as negative to override the negative connotation of a negative reinforcer, so if you praise a student four times in a paper and then give them one critical remark, they will remember the critical remark more (this is common knowledge in dog and people training-- be sparing with the negatives). Anything can be a negative reinforcer, and unwittingly, generations of teachers have made red ink into that reinforcer.
The only purpose of the color is to call attention to the thing that was written by the teacher, not the student. If the student gets trained that red=bad, then they will avoid seeing the red ink entirely, just as a dog will pretend not to see its owner standing there when it's trying to get away with some bad behavior.
If the student gets bad comments in every color of ink, then the student's mind will have to find another negative reinforcer, like "it's in handwriting" or "it's in the margins" or, best still, "it has a D at the top of the page."
Yes, except that assumes that all comments by a teacher are negative, when they're not. So, if all teachers grade in red, you get both good and bad comments in red. Both good and bad grades in red.
As I said-- the negative feedback has more impact than the positive, so teachers who provide an equal amount of positive and negative comments will be perceived by their students as very critical.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: I feel like I keep having this conversation
Date: 2005-04-04 02:41 pm (UTC)If you had 6 teachers in school, you would get red ink from 6 of them.
If, however, all of your teachers picked any ink color except black or pencil, then you would get teal ink (for instance) from 1 out of 6 of them. That's 1/6 exposure to negative comments in teal, vs. 6/6 exposure to negative comments in red, previously. As a result, students will not have as strong of an association between the color and the negative comments.
It's like training a dog. If you wave a white flag at a dog and then hit it with a stick, the dog will quickly learn that white flag=bad. It takes about 5 times as many positive reinforcements as negative to override the negative connotation of a negative reinforcer, so if you praise a student four times in a paper and then give them one critical remark, they will remember the critical remark more (this is common knowledge in dog and people training-- be sparing with the negatives). Anything can be a negative reinforcer, and unwittingly, generations of teachers have made red ink into that reinforcer.
The only purpose of the color is to call attention to the thing that was written by the teacher, not the student. If the student gets trained that red=bad, then they will avoid seeing the red ink entirely, just as a dog will pretend not to see its owner standing there when it's trying to get away with some bad behavior.
If the student gets bad comments in every color of ink, then the student's mind will have to find another negative reinforcer, like "it's in handwriting" or "it's in the margins" or, best still, "it has a D at the top of the page."
Re: I feel like I keep having this conversation
Date: 2005-04-05 03:09 am (UTC)Re: I feel like I keep having this conversation
Date: 2005-04-05 08:25 am (UTC)