Learning from Mrs Sharma

Freya my 7 year old daughter has had a supply teacher (Mrs Sharma) for the last two weeks as her regular teacher is in hospital. They don't like Mrs Sharma. She is strict and 'shouty'.

On Wednesday Freya came home and was very excited to tell me about some praise she had received for a design she had done on the computer. She doesn't normally speak much about her work without prompting... but this time it was special - the praise had come from Mrs Sharma... and "she is REALLY hard to impress".

Today she had a sticker for a poem she had written. Mrs Sharma had given it to her. "And she is REALLY hard to impress, you know!!!"

Praise from Mrs Sharma, it seems is worth a lot more than praise from her usual teacher, because it is so hard won... the kids are not stupid.

So where does this leave the feedback loop? Is it advantageous to let students think you are 'hard to impress'? Does it make them try harder... or will it make some of them give up. I'm going to see if I can find anything about it in the texts.