Expectations Matter: Relations Between Teacher Expectations, Student Perceptions, Classroom Climate, Student Self-Efficacy, Emotions, and Achievement

Abstract

Teachers’ expectations, which act as a self-fulfilling prophecy, have been found to be influential on students’ academic outcomes and motivation. Student perceptions play a key role in this process. Hence, this research project involved three studies using mixed methods to explore teacher expectation effects from their formation to confirmation in Chinese classrooms in senior high schools in Mainland China. Study One used individual interviews to explore the formation of Chinese teachers’ expectations and classify them into class-level high-, average- and low-expectation groups for analysis for the subsequent studies. Study Two aimed to investigate the connection between student perceptions of teacher expectations and teachers’ actual expectations, as well as the longitudinal changes in student-perceived classroom climate across different teacher expectation groups and relations with teacher expectations and student achievement. Finally, Study Three investigated the dynamic relations between student emotions and self-efficacy throughout one academic year. Associations with teacher expectations and student outcomes were also examined. The findings of Study One demonstrated that teachers with higher expectations and more years of experience tended to have a higher level of self-efficacy and were more likely to create an enjoyable classroom climate, whereas less experienced teachers had lower self-efficacy and were more likely to struggle with classroom management. In Study Two, compared to students in classes of teachers with medium and low teacher expectations, those whose teachers held higher class-level expectations were found to experience a warmer and more stable learning environment. In Study Three, during the first half of the school year, students’ positive emotions at Time 1 negatively predicted their self-efficacy at Time 2. In contrast, during the second half of the school year, their self-efficacy at Time 2 positively predicted their positive emotions at Time 3. The final chapter discusses findings from the three studies, includes implications for theory and practice, and includes recommendations for future research. Collectively, this research project explored teacher expectation effects from both teacher and student perspectives. This thesis provided evidence and meaningful insights into the process of teacher expectations from formation to confirmation, which could be used to make teachers aware of their expectations and empower them with high-expectation knowledge, in order to hinder the negative effects of low teacher expectations and promote educational progress.