Teachers often hold expectations about the abilities of their students
Dasha Bunks
Liberty University
PSYC 775 - Teaching of Psychology
Dr. Winn
2022
Explanation
These beliefs shape the kinds of instruction delivered to students, the grouping practices that are
used, anticipated learning outcomes, and methods of evaluation. Most teacher expectations about
individual student ability are based on students’ past academic performance and, for the most part, may
be an accurate representation. In some cases, however, teachers come to hold inaccurate beliefs, such
as expecting less of the student than he or she can actually achieve. If faulty expectations are
communicated to a student (whether verbally or nonverbally), that student may begin to perform in
ways that confirm the teacher’s original expectation. An inaccurate teacher expectation that creates its
own reality has been labeled a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When these inaccurate expectations do occur, they are more likely to be directed toward
stigmatized groups (e.g., ethnic minority youth, economically disadvantaged youth), because negative
beliefs or stereotypes about the intellectual abilities of these groups exist in our society. These faulty
expectations are more likely to occur in the earlier grades, at the beginning of a school year, and at
times of school transitions in other words, when the contexts in which information about prior
achievement may be least available or reliable and when students may have grounds to question their
abilities. Whether accurate or not, expectations influence how teachers treat students. For example,
teachers appear to provide a more supportive emotional climate, clearer feedback, more attention,
more instructional time, and more learning opportunities overall for their high-expectancy versus low-
expectancy students. Such differential treatment may increase the actual differences in achievement
between highand low-performing students over time.
It is best for teachers to communicate high expectations to all students and maintain
appropriately high standards for everyone in order to avoid negative self-fulfilling prophecies:
• Teachers can continually assess the reliability of the information they are using to form their
expectations. A student’s weak academic history should not be perceived as the absolute last word
about a student (i.e., there may be mitigating factors that may have impaired the student’s ability in the
past but no longer apply) but rather as a working hypothesis about a student that the teacher has an
opportunity to disprove. Also, race, gender, and social class are not solid bases on which to form
expectations of student ability.
• Because teachers can sometimes be unaware that they are treating students differently on the
basis of their expectations (high-expectancy students vs. low-expectancy students), it can be helpful for
teachers to do a self-check. For example, teachers can ask themselves whether (a) only highexpectancy
students are seated in the front of the classroom, (b) everyone is getting a chance to participate in class
discussions, and (c) written feedback on assignments is comparably detailed for high- and low-
expectancy students. Probably the best antidote to negative expectancy effects is to never give up on a
student.
References
Jussim, L., Eccles, J., & Madon, S. (1996). Social perception, social stereotypes, and teacher expectations:
Accuracy and the quest for the powerful self-fulfilling prophecy. In M. P. Zanna (Ed.), Advances
in experimental social psychology (Vol. 28, pp. 281–388). San Diego, CA Academic Press.
Jussim, L., & Harber, K. D. (2005). Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies: Knowns and
unknowns, resolved and unresolved controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review,
9(2), 131–155. doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0902_3
Jussim. L., Robustelli, S., & Cain, T. (2009). Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies. In A.
Wigfield & K. Wentzel (Eds.), Handbook of motivation at school (pp. 349–380). Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
