Expecting the best : instructional practices, teacher beliefs and student outcomes

Abstract

The current study explored whether there are more pervasive teacher-centred expectations than the typical studies that find specific teacher-student expectation effects. Groups of teachers who had uniformly high or low expectations for their students were identified, and their instructional practices, beliefs and effects on the academic and social outcomes for their students were explored in four studies. Study One explored the academic outcomes for students in the high and low expectation teachers' classrooms over a year. Students in the classes of teachers with uniformly high expectations for their students made significantly greater progress in reading than their counterparts in the classes of teachers who had low expectations for their students. Study Two involved observations of the instructional and interactional practices of the different groups of teachers. Those with high expectations for all their students spent more time instructing their students, more frequently provided their students with a framework for their learning, questioned their students more and provided them with more feedback on their learning than the teachers who had uniformly low expectations. It also appeared from the observational data that the teachers who had uniformly high expectations for their students' learning provided a more positive socioemotional climate in which instruction took place. In Study Three the different groups of teachers were interviewed regarding their beliefs about how learning should be provided to students with high or low ability. It was found that the high expectation teachers believed there should be less differentiation in the learning opportunities provided to their low and high ability students than did the low expectation teachers. The former group of teachers also reported providing their students with more choice in their learning than did the latter group of teachers. Study Four focused on the academic and social self-perceptions of the students. The academic self-perceptions of the students who were in the classes with teachers who had high iii expectations for their learning increased across the school year while those in classrooms with teachers who had low expectations for their learning decreased. A model is built whereby it is suggested that teachers' expectations for their classes can have major effects on opportunities to learn, instructional practices, interactional patterns, student self-perceptions and academic outcomes.