Part of the Positive School Culture Guide for Teachers/School Staff: What students’ experiences of Year 7 can teach us
This series shares insights from research exploring how students experience the transition to secondary school, and what these experiences reveal about how Positive School Cultures develop through relationships, expectations, and everyday classroom interactions.
Introduction
In the student guide, we saw that belonging often develops when students feel noticed, included, and recognised. This raises an important question for classrooms and the school more widely: how do everyday interactions — such as praise and recognition — shape whether students feel visible and able to participate?
Research on students’ experiences of starting secondary school suggests that feeling recognised by teachers and peers can play a crucial role in shaping participation, belonging, and classroom culture.
In many classrooms, teachers use praise to encourage students.
Teachers are often encouraged to focus praise on effort, strategies, and improvement rather than personal labels about students’ ability. This kind of process-focused praise is widely used to support persistence and confidence in learning.
But when students describe what makes lessons feel positive or discouraging, they often talk about something slightly different.
They talk about whether their effort is actually noticed.
Across many students’ accounts, what emerged was not simply a desire for praise, but a desire to feel recognised and visible within the classroom community.
Students often described moments when teachers and peers recognised effort, improvement, or participation. These experiences helped them feel visible and valued within the classroom and, more broadly within the life of the school.
At the same time, students also noticed when recognition seemed uneven — when some students were regularly acknowledged while others felt overlooked.
These experiences reveal something important about how classroom culture develops. Recognition, in this sense, operates as one of the conditions through which participation becomes possible in classroom life.
What matters to many students is not simply praise itself, but whether their effort is recognised and they feel seen as participants in the shared work of the classroom. Recognition shapes not only how students feel, but whether participation becomes possible, comfortable, or worthwhile within the classroom. Gradually, these patterns of participation are closely connected to whether students begin to feel that they belong within the classroom and wider school community.
Over time, repeated experiences of being recognised can begin to stabilise students’ sense of place within the classroom. These recurring moments of being noticed, included, and able to contribute can act as anchors, helping students feel more secure in participating in school life.
Praise and recognition are not the same thing
Praise is often brief and general.
Teachers might say:
'Good work.'
'Well done.'
'Nice answer.'
Recognition often feels different to students.
Recognition involves teachers noticing something specific about what a student has done within the lesson — or recognising something about the student themselves. This specificity is what helps students feel that their contribution has genuinely been seen.
This might include noticing:
- effort being made
- progress
- a thoughtful question
- a helpful contribution to discussion
- a student trying again after difficulty.
Students often remember moments when teachers noticed these things.
For example, a student might feel encouraged when a teacher says:
'I can see you’ve really improved your explanation here.'
'That’s a thoughtful question.'
'That contribution really helped move our discussion forward.'
'You’ve clearly worked hard on this.'
These comments signal that the teacher has seen the student’s effort, thinking, or contribution, not just the final result.
When students experience this kind of recognition, they are more likely to feel visible and valued within the classroom, which can support student engagement and participation.
For students, moments like this often signal something deeper than encouragement: they indicate that the teacher has noticed them as a participant in the shared work of the lesson.
Across students’ accounts, recognition was closely linked to whether students chose to participate in school life.
Feeling visible in the classroom
During the transition to secondary school, students quickly become aware of how attention works in classrooms.
Secondary school lessons involve many students, limited time, and complex routines. Teachers must manage learning, behaviour, and assessment simultaneously.
Some students quickly become known within classrooms, while others can pass through lessons largely unnoticed.
In interviews, many Year 7 students were already aware of these patterns within their first months of secondary school.
These patterns are particularly visible during the secondary school transition, when students are learning new classroom norms and participation expectations.
Within this environment, these differences can become established quite quickly.
Students also spoke about moments when teachers recognised them as individuals. This might involve remembering a student’s interests, responding thoughtfully to something they said, or showing curiosity about their ideas. These interactions signalled that the student was not simply another member of the class, but someone whose presence and perspective mattered.
But students also noticed when the same individuals seemed to receive most of the attention in lessons.
For some students, this created the feeling that certain voices mattered more than others.
Even small signals — eye contact, acknowledging a comment, or recognising effort — could influence whether students felt comfortable participating in lessons.
For many students, recognition is not only about academic performance. It is also about feeling that their voice matters and that they are recognised as individuals within the classroom community.
For many students, recognition develops gradually. As teachers and students begin to learn each other's names, interests, and ways of participating, students often become more visible within lessons and the wider life of the school. These small moments accumulate over time, helping students feel increasingly recognised and confident in their place within the learning community.
Subtle signals shape participation
Many of the interactions that shape school culture are subtle and easy to overlook.
Students notice things such as:
- which students are regularly called on
- whose answers are acknowledged
- how teachers respond to mistakes
- whether effort is recognised as well as correct answers.
These signals help students form expectations about whether it feels safe or worthwhile to contribute.
When students feel that their effort, ideas, and participation are recognised, they are more likely to ask questions, share perspectives, and take intellectual risks within the lesson. When students feel invisible, they may begin to participate less. Students do not all interpret these moments in the same way, and may respond differently depending on their confidence, past experiences, and how comfortable they feel in class.
Over repeated interactions, these small signals help students decide whether they see themselves as someone whose voice belongs at school — or someone who is better off staying quiet, even when they have something to contribute.
These moments may seem small in isolation, but as they accumulate, they begin to shape how students see themselves within the classroom.
In this way, recognition is not only about encouragement. It is one of the everyday ways in which school culture develops, shaping who feels able to participate and whose voice becomes part of the learning community.
Over time, these patterns can become taken-for-granted, shaping how students see themselves as learners and whether they continue to contribute.
Recognition between students
Recognition in classrooms does not only flow from teachers to students — it circulates between students and across the classroom.Students also notice how their classmates respond when they contribute ideas, ask questions, or attempt difficult work.
A supportive comment from another student, a classmate building on someone’s idea, or a group acknowledging someone’s effort can all signal that a contribution matters.
These peer responses can influence how comfortable students feel speaking in lessons.
During adolescence, recognition from peers can carry particular weight. As students begin to form a stronger sense of identity and social belonging, the way classmates respond to their ideas or contributions can shape whether participation feels safe, valued, or risky.
When classmates respond respectfully to one another’s ideas, students are more likely to participate and take intellectual risks. When contributions are ignored, dismissed, or laughed at, students may become more cautious about speaking.
For many students, classroom culture is therefore shaped not only by how teachers respond, but also by how students recognise and respond to one another.
Teachers play an important role in shaping these peer interactions. By modelling respectful responses, inviting students to build on each other’s ideas, and acknowledging collaborative contributions, teachers can help establish classroom norms in which students recognise and support one another’s participation.
Over time, these patterns help create classrooms where recognition circulates through the group rather than flowing only from teacher to student.
Recognition and fairness
Students’ sense of fairness is closely tied to how recognition is distributed within the classroom.
Students often notice how attention is distributed within classrooms.
They notice:
-
whether quieter students are invited to contribute
-
whether improvement is recognised
-
whether the same students are always praised.
When recognition appears fair and inclusive, students are more likely to see the classroom as a space where participation is valued.
When recognition appears uneven, some students may begin to withdraw from participation, even if they are capable of contributing.
Recognition in classrooms is shaped not only by teachers but also by how students respond to one another’s ideas, effort, and participation. These everyday interactions influence who becomes visible within the learning community.
Because of this, recognition is not only an individual interaction between a teacher and a student. It also contributes to how classroom culture develops over time.
At the same time, wider school culture also shapes how recognition is experienced within classrooms. When respect, listening, and participation are reinforced through everyday interactions across the school, recognition is more likely to circulate among students.
It is also worth remembering that recognition is not always experienced equally by all students. In most classrooms, some students quickly become visible participants while others remain more hesitant or overlooked. This is not only about individual teachers, but about how everyday interactions and routines shape who becomes visible within the classroom.
In practice, recognition is not distributed evenly. Some students are more frequently noticed, responded to, and invited into participation, while others may remain less visible. These patterns can develop quickly, especially during the early stages of secondary school, and can shape who comes to feel like an active participant in classroom life.
Paying attention to how recognition is distributed — by both teachers and students — can therefore play an important role in ensuring that more students experience the classroom as a place where their voice matters.
This means that supporting participation is not only about applying the same approach to all students, but about ensuring that recognition reaches those who might otherwise remain less visible.
What this means for classrooms
Instead, it often involves small classroom practices that help students feel recognised and visible within everyday lessons.
These practices rarely require large changes to teaching, but they do require attention to how recognition is distributed. Often, they involve small adjustments in how attention is distributed within lessons and how students’ contributions are acknowledged.
School leaders can also play a role by creating organisational conditions that make recognition easier to sustain — for example through stable tutor relationships, manageable class structures, and routines that allow staff and students to know one another well. While leaders often work within significant structural pressures and accountability demands, these organisational conditions can shape whether recognition circulates widely across the school community.
This also depends on the capacity of adults within the school to notice and respond to students in meaningful ways. These capacities are shaped by workload, organisational structures, and adults’ own prior experiences of school, which can influence how consistently recognition is enacted in everyday interactions.
- noticing effort as well as correct answers
- acknowledging improvement over time
- responding constructively to questions and ideas
- inviting contributions from a wider range of students
- recognising quieter forms of participation
- showing curiosity about students’ perspectives and experiences
- encouraging students to listen to and build on each other’s ideas
Over time, this recognition contributes to the relational trust that allows students to participate confidently in school life.
Recognition is not simply something teachers give; it is something that circulates through classroom interactions, shaping who becomes visible and whose voice becomes part of the learning community.
Key ideas
Students often value being noticed for their effort, ideas, and contributions more than hearing general praise.
Recognition also involves seeing students as individuals whose perspectives and experiences matter within the classroom community.
Small signals in classrooms influence whether students feel visible and confident enough to contribute.
When recognition is fair and inclusive, it helps build the relational trust that supports participation, belonging, and positive school culture.
Recognition influences not only how students feel, but whether they participate, shaping patterns of engagement and belonging over time.
Reflection questions for staff
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between praise and recognition in the classroom?
Praise is often general encouragement, while recognition involves noticing specific effort, ideas, or improvement. Students often experience recognition as a signal that their contribution has genuinely been seen and valued.
Why does recognition matter for student participation?
When students feel recognised by teachers and peers, they are more likely to participate, ask questions, and share ideas in lessons.
How can teachers recognise students more effectively?
Teachers can recognise effort, thoughtful questions, improvement over time, and contributions to discussion.
This series explores what students’ experiences of starting secondary school can teach us about how Positive School Cultures (PoSCs) are created through everyday interactions, expectations, and relationships.
The Positive School Culture Guide for Teachers/School Staff: What Students’ Experiences of Year 7 Can Teach Us
Why Recognising Students Matters More Than Praise
Belonging Takes Time: What Schools Can Learn from the Year 7 Transition
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