More than Words: Modeling What Teachers Praise and How They Praise It

Jiseung Yoo, Paiheng Xu, Jing Liu


Abstract
Praise is one of the most frequent evaluative acts in teaching, but what a praise turn communicates depends less on its words than on how it is delivered. We propose measuring delivery as self-deviation, comparing a praise turn against two references drawn from the speaker themselves, the teacher’s other praise turns (Global Reference) and the speech immediately surrounding the turn (Local Reference).
Anthology ID:
2026.aimecon-wip.59
Volume:
Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Works in Progress
Month:
October
Year:
2026
Address:
Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Editors:
Joshua Wilson, Christopher Ormerod, Magdalen Beiting-Parrish
Venue:
AIME-Con
SIG:
Publisher:
National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)
Note:
Pages:
472–482
Language:
URL:
https://aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-wip.59/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):
Jiseung Yoo, Paiheng Xu, and Jing Liu. 2026. More than Words: Modeling What Teachers Praise and How They Praise It. In Proceedings of the Artificial Intelligence in Measurement and Education Conference (AIME-Con): Works in Progress, pages 472–482, Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME).
Cite (Informal):
More than Words: Modeling What Teachers Praise and How They Praise It (Yoo et al., AIME-Con 2026)
Copy Citation:
PDF:
https://aclanthology.org/2026.aimecon-wip.59.pdf