Student Teacher Expectations Research Articles

Teacher expectation effects on the development of elementary school students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values

While teacher expectations are known to influence students’ academic achievement, they may also exert significant influences on student motivation, which is a precursor to a student’s achievement as well. A number of previous studies have demonstrated that motivation affects a student’s achievement. There is, however, a dearth of longitudinal research examining the relation between teacher expectations and students’ motivational variables. In this article, we examine the relations between teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability, students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs, and students’ mathematics-related intrinsic task-values. Our sample consisted of 796 second-grade students and their 50 teachers; the data collection was conducted at three points within a school year. Longitudinal latent change score analyses yielded three main results: First, teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability and both students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values decreased significantly in the second half of the school year. Second, regarding correlated changes, students who experienced larger increases in teacher expectations also demonstrated higher increases in competence beliefs and intrinsic task values in mathematics. Third, after controlling for students’ initial mathematics achievement, effects of teacher expectations of students’ mathematics ability at the beginning of the school year on subsequent changes in students’ mathematics-related competence beliefs and intrinsic task values were revealed. Our study highlights the important role of teacher expectations in shaping students’ motivational variables, which underscores the need for teacher training programs and policy interventions aimed at increasing teachers’ awareness of their expectations and how they can foster a positive learning environment for their students.

A Teacher

The government has become very fond of saying that the key factor in student underachievement is teacher expectations of students. It is true that teacher quality is the greatest internal school factor affecting student achievement but it is also true that external socio-economic factors have an even greater impact. Teachers themselves must become more political and just as we must have high expectations for our students we must also have high expectations on the government to deliver

The push and pull factors of teaching as a profession – The perceptions and expectations of student teachers

Research has shown that despite the teaching profession being labelled an unattractive career, student teachers’ enrolment in South Africa continues to rise annually. This study seeks to investigate why student teachers enrol for teaching in South Africa today. 222 first year student teachers enrolled for education in a South African university participated in the study, which looked at the perceptions and expectations of student teachers in South Africa. A 91-item questionnaire was used to collect data, and the results indicate that these student teachers have more positive perceptions and expectations on the teaching profession than expected. The study recommends improvements in the education and training environment in South Africa in the form of introducing tax relief measures for teachers; intensified capacity building, and skilling of educators; re-imagining educators’ professional identity through improved professional virtue; improving safety and security in schooling environments; lessening what the author regard as pure administrative functions of teachers which add to the teaching workload; and having in place effective and sustainable infrastructure development programmes.

The Role of Racial Match Between Students and Teachers in School-Based Consultation

Disparities between the educational outcomes of students of color and their White peers have persisted across decades. Multicultural consultee-centered consultation has the potential to mitigate negative outcomes for students of color by improving the knowledge and skills of teachers. However, more empirical research is needed to understand the role of diversity within the consultative relationship and problem-solving process. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of racial diversity between students and teachers during school-based consultation on the perceptions school psychologists have of collaboration, teacher expectations of students, and student–teacher relationships, as school psychologists commonly serve as school-based consultants. The study employed an experimental design, in which 83 practicing school psychologists were randomly assigned to watch videos of a teacher describing a student referral problem in a racial match or racial mismatch condition. Results suggested school psychologists’ perceptions of the collaborative relationship were more positive when students and teachers were Black compared to when they were White. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. Impact Statement This is the only known experimental study conducted in over 20 years to examine the impact of student and teacher racial differences within school-based consultation. Results suggested that school psychologists perceived the collaborative relationship with a teacher to be more positive when both the student and teacher were Black compared to when the student and teacher were White. Given the predominantly White sample, these findings highlight the importance of culturally responsive strategies even when members of the consultation triad are racially matched.

Teacher expectations and students’ achievement in solving elementary arithmetic problems

The objective of this research was to verify whether teacher expectations of students' achievement in mathematics in solving elementary arithmetic problems are related to students’ performance in these problems. The sample was 1,420 students and 66 teachers from 48 schools in Spain.First, we assessed whether differences existed in the level of resolution among students, with regard to such factors as grade, gender, or socioeconomic status. We then evaluated teachers' level of expectations of students in relation to the same factors. Finally, we aimed to verify to what extent teachers' expectations corresponded to students’ performance levels.It was found that there is a moderate correlation between expectations and achievement, and that expectations were greater than the results. A comparison is made with the results of previous studies.

The Push and Pull Factors of Teaching as a Profession – the Perceptions and Expectations of Student Teachers

Research has shown that despite the teaching profession being labelled an unattractive career, student teachers’ enrolment in South Africa continues to rise annually. This study seeks to investigate why student teachers enrol for teaching in South Africa today. 222 first year student teachers enrolled for education in a South African university participated in the study, which looked at the perceptions and expectations of student teachers in South Africa. A 91-item questionnaire was used to collect data, and the results indicate that these student teachers have more positive perceptions and expectations on the teaching profession than expected. The study recommends improvements in the education and training environment in South Africa in the form of introducing tax relief measures for teachers; intensified capacity building, and skilling of educators; re-imagining educators’ professional identity through improved professional virtue; improving safety and security in schooling environments; lessening what the author regard as pure administrative functions of teachers which add to the teaching workload; and having in place effective and sustainable infrastructure development programmes.

Information Skills: The Reflections and Perceptions of Student Teachers

Part of the “information rich but knowledge poor” discussion concerns physical access to information, but another aspect relates to whether people can use the information they have accessed effectively. In education this is in relation to pupils, but it also concerns teachers. If teachers fail to understand the value and relevance of information skills to themselves as learners, will this create problems in developing those skills in their own pupils? This paper focuses on interviews with (1) professionals who have expectations of student teachers regarding information skills, (2) student teachers reflecting on their own information skills. The data is set within the context of information skills development and the present teacher training ethos in Scotland. Results so far indicate three main issues: first, a lack of understanding about the term information skills; second, a general inability to view information skills as generic skills in a holistic way; and third, an inability and/or lack of opportunity, in many cases, to reflect on abilities and shortfalls.

Bias in Primary School Teachers’ Expectations of Students? A Study of General and Specific Bias Towards SES, Ethnicity and Gender

Based on teachers' knowledge base of students, teacher expectations of students' (future) abilities and potential are shaped, in which bias may occur. This study investigates data on multiple attributes of 535 sixth-grade Flemish students to find out (1) whether teacher expectations of students' cognitive and non-cognitive attributes, of teacher-student relationships, and of parental involvement in education are biased, and (2) whether teachers differ in their expectation bias towards SES, ethnicity, and gender. By means of correlation analysis, in which we compared teacher expectations with multiple measured student attributes (i.e., their achievement test scores and self-assessments), the results showed statistically significant, positive correlations for all the attributes included, indicating an overall correspondence between teacher expectations and students' measured attributes. At the same time, using an indicator of teacher expectation bias by subtracting the students' measured attributes from the corresponding teacher expectations, this study highlighted an expectation bias in terms of over- and underestimation by teachers, especially with respect to teachers' expectations of students cognitive attributes and parental involvement in education. Also, a specific bias in teacher expectations towards SES and gender was found.

Dilemma Situations in Teaching Practice: What Do Student Teachers Reflect?

It has been suggested that if student teachers formally reflect on teaching dilemmas they confront, it may be possible for them to uncover new understandings of the teaching and learning process. The starting point of this study is to help student teachers be aware of their own conflicts in teaching English and talk about them explicitly, which is thought to lead them to make theory-informed evaluation of their ways of thinking and to stimulate the habit of reflective inquiry. Employing the qualitative approach, this paper outlines and interprets how student teachers in a practicum course in Turkey reflected on their teaching dilemmas just after they completed their teaching practice in their practice schools. The dilemmas student teachers reflected on were on three dimensions of a lesson: planning, managing, and conducting the lesson. The interpretations included conflicting thoughts, values, or expectations of student teachers throughout the teaching process as a whole; and the issues that guided them in deciding on their courses of action.

Middle School Teachers’ Academic and Behavioral Perceptions of Their Students and Expectations for High School Graduation

Teacher expectations of students have been consistently linked with student academic achievement. What is less known is how students’ actual behaviors and performance shape teachers’ perceptions of them, particularly when considering student gender and race/ethnicity. A diverse dyadic sample of 1,653 seventh graders with 63 reporting teachers was used to examine how teaching experience, student behavioral citations, and grade point average were related to teachers’ perceptions of each student’s antisocial behavior, academic motivation, and likelihood of graduating high school. Results showed that more experienced teachers perceived students more positively, which in turn shaped more favorable perspectives of student graduation. Unsurprisingly, when students were cited for behavioral disruptions, they were perceived more negatively by teachers. Similarly, when students were more academically successful, teachers perceived them more positively. However, several nuances were found based on student gender and race/ethnicity that point to a potentially significant role of teacher expectations in student outcomes.

The expectations of Finnish RE student teachers of their professional development in their academic studies in the light of twenty-first-century skills

ABSTRACTThis study examines what kind of expectations religious education (RE) student teachers have about their professional development during their academic studies. The study focuses on eight RE student teachers in teacher education in Finland. The students were studied in light of the twenty-first-century skills framework. The analysis was deductive content analysis with quantification of the results. There were several results from the study. For instance, much of the learning expectations of the student teachers were connected to the perceived tasks of the RE teacher. The RE student teachers also considered the twenty-first-century skills as relevant for a competent RE teacher in future. The student teachers expected to gain competence in religious literacy and dialogue skills from the theological studies. The participants seemed to emphasise the acquisition of social and interaction skills but also dialogue skills from the pedagogical studies.

The interpersonal character of teacher expectations: The perceived teacher-student relationship as an antecedent of teachers' track recommendations

Teacher expectations of students have long been recognized as a form of interpersonal expectations. In this study, we aimed to investigate the interpersonal character of teacher expectations by assessing 1) whether teacher expectations and the teacher-student relationship shared similar antecedents in terms of demographic characteristics of students, and 2) whether the dimensions closeness, conflict, and dependency of the teacher-student relationship were predictive of teacher expectations. Analyses were based on a large sample of 9881 students in 614 classes in the final grade of primary education. The results indicated that teacher expectations – as measured by track recommendations - and the teacher-student relationship were not consistent in antecedents. Student performance, parental education, and closeness were positive predictors of track recommendations, whereas they were negatively associated with conflict and dependency. Ethnicity was positively associated with track recommendations, but negatively with closeness. Furthermore, perceived closeness and conflict were not statistically significantly associated with track recommendations. A negative association was found for perceived dependency with teachers' track recommendations, although the latter association appeared stronger for high performing students. Finally, the results showed that teachers differed in how they weigh the conflict and dependency dimensions when formulating track recommendations, indicating that those teacher perceptions played a stronger role in some of the classes.

Entering secondary physical education student- teachers’ expectations of their program of initial teacher education

The views and beliefs held by entering student teachers can be shaped by their expectations of teaching and initial teacher education. Whilst interest has investigated student teachers’ expectations little exists in physical education. This qualitative paper examines the entering expectations held by 24 PGCE secondary physical education student teachers. Informed by the published literature on student teacher expectations and the specific purposes of this study, data were collected from participants on the first day of their initial teacher education course in the form of an open-ended survey that included eleven items. Participants discussed a range of expectations related to course content, pedagogy, course structure and staffing responsibilities and contributions. Student teachers should be encouraged to explore their expectations and consider which specific elements align with initial preconceptions concerning their teacher education.

Gender-specific teacher expectations in reading—The role of teachers’ gender stereotypes

This study focused on how teachers’ gender stereotypes are connected to teacher expectations, and examined the relations between students’ gender, teachers’ gender stereotypes, teacher expectations of students’ reading ability, and students’ reading achievement. Our sample consisted of 54 teachers and 1358 fifth-grade students (49% girls; age at T1: 10.89 years); data were collected at two time points. Multilevel analyses yielded three main results. First, after controlling for students’ previous achievement, teacher expectations predicted students’ reading achievement. Second, teachers’ higher expectations concerning the reading ability of girls explained the differences between boys’ and girls’ reading achievement. Third, a cross-level interaction was found: teachers with stronger stereotypes favoring girls expected girls to have higher reading ability than boys. Thus, our results contribute to the understanding of gender-specific teacher expectations by explicitly investigating the role of teachers’ gender stereotypes.

What Does a Culturally Sustaining Learning Climate Look Like?

A solid base of research evidence exists to show that teachers’ assessments of children are impacted by their perceptions of those children. From the Pygmalion in the Classroom experiment which powerfully showed that teacher expectations of students impacted those students’ performance, to more recent research on teachers’ underrating of children based on low SES, race, and language learner status, it is clear that what educators believe about their students has real implications for their educational outcomes. This article examines the learning climate for young children at the intersection of children's immigration status, disproportionality, and teacher perceptions, making an argument for classrooms that are humanizing and culturally sustaining. Given the large and ever growing population of young immigrant students, teachers need tools to develop positive climates within which all students can thrive. This article presents a framework of such tools that can be built into teacher preparation curricula to support the development of early childhood educators.

Teach Me How to Be a Kindergarten Teacher: Expectations of Kindergarten Student Teachers from Their Mentor Kindergarten Teachers

Teaching is a complex task that involves practical and theoretical knowledge. Students gain practical knowledge through practicum that takes place in kindergartens or schools. The student teacher trains under the auspices of an experienced kindergarten teacher or teacher who becomes their mentor. The object of this research was to examine the expectations of student teachers from their mentor kindergarten teachers. Fifty-four student teachers answered a specially written questionnaire, distributed through Google docs, about their expectations from their mentor kindergarten teachers. The data analysis was qualitatively being the most suitable research method to answer the research question being a primarily exploratory research. It is used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions, and motivations. The results show that the student teachers expect to gain practical knowledge of skills and tools that are important to their profession and that the mentoring relationship will be supportive, encouraging and attentive. The significance of this research is that mentor kindergarten teachers will be more aware of what their mentees expect from this relationship, especially in light of the fact that there is no agreed concept of the mentor’s role in the literature. Therefore, this research can provide important guidelines.

Effects of school composition and school climate on teacher expectations of students: A multilevel analysis

Low teacher expectations negatively affect student outcomes and school effectiveness. The present study investigated the effect of educational climate and school socioeconomic, ethnic and academic composition on teacher expectations of student success. Multilevel analysis of teachers (N = 2666) nested within high schools (N = 71) demonstrated that school composition and school educational climate have an independent (a net) effect on teacher expectations. While academic composition had the greatest influence and suppressed the association between socioeconomic composition and the outcome, educational climate was also of importance. Additional mediation analyses revealed an indirect path of academic composition on teacher expectations via school educational climate.

Curriculum tracking and teacher expectations: evidence from discrepant course taking models

In an effort to understand teacher-student relationships much research has investigated how teacher expectations of student performance in the classroom affect achievement growth. However, little research has focused on how teacher expectations of students’ educational attainment are formed. In this paper, we examine how students’ high school track placements affect teacher expectations regarding students’ educational attainment in the NELS data. NELS is a large, nationally representative longitudinal study from the United States of the graduating class of 1992. We focus on students with discrepant track placements to determine how different teachers evaluate the same student. Overall, for the same student, teachers in high track classes have higher college expectations than teachers in lower track classrooms.

Beliefs and Expectations of Student Teachers' about their Self and Role as Teacher During Teaching Practice Course

Abstract The purposes of this study include exploring beliefs and expectations of student teachers’ about their self and roles as teachers during Teaching Practice course. The aim of conducting this research is to contribute to filling the gap in the literature concerning the beliefs and expectations of student teachers of English and their relevance to their practice. With relation to ‘self’ and ‘teaching role's to compare them before and after the teaching practice. Secondly, the study aims to explore how these beliefs and expectations affect their performance during the teaching session. This study was conducted with senior students of the Department of English Language Teaching at a state university in Turkey during the 2009-2010 academic year. Data collection procedures include semi-structured in depth interviews with student teachers and classroom video-recordings of their teaching sessions. Analysis procedures include pattern-coding method suggested by Miles and Hubermann (1997) and the content analysis of the lesson transcriptions with comparison to the interviews.

The match and mismatch between expectations of student teachers and cooperating teachers: exploring different opportunities for learning to teach in the mentor relationship

This study focuses on 20 mentoring pairs in an Israeli teacher training program in order to determine in which ways matched and mismatched expectations of the role of the cooperating teacher between student teachers and cooperating teachers contribute to different opportunities for learning to teach. Perceptions of learning reported in student teachers’ pedagogical journals were analysed according to two category systems based on different orientations to teaching and the concepts of support and challenge, and compared to the initial expectations of the cooperating teachers and the student teachers. We found that matched expectations between student teachers and cooperating teachers explained a high degree of support in student teachers’ perceptions of learning to teach, whereas mismatched expectations explained a high degree of challenge. We also found a third pattern of expectations that was neither matched nor mismatched, but mixed, in terms of support and challenge in a wide range of orientations to teaching. The conclusion of this study is that the mixed pattern provides opportunities for optimal learning. Based on the findings, we make some recommendations for supervision of participants of mentoring relationships in practicum programmes.