TEACHER EXPECTATIONS

RESEARCH FINDING:

Teachers  who set and communicate high expectations to all  their 
students obtain greater academic performance from those  students 
than teachers who set low expectations.

COMMENT:

The expectations teachers have about what students can and cannot 
learn  may become self-fulfilling prophecies.   Students tend  to 
learn as little--or as much--as their teachers expect.

Students  from whom teachers expect less are treated differently.  
Such students typically:

  .	are seated farther away from the teacher,
  .	receive less direct instruction,
  .	have fewer opportunities to learn new material, and 
  .	are asked to do less work.

Teachers also call on these students less often and the questions 
they  ask  are more likely to be simple and basic  than  thought-
provoking.   Typically,  such  students  are given less  time  to 
respond  and less help when their answers are  wrong.   But  when 
teachers  give  these  same students the chance  to  answer  more 
challenging  questions,  the  students contribute more ideas  and 
opinions to class discussions. 


Brophy,  J. E. (l981).  "Teacher Praise:  A Functional Analysis."  
Review of Education Research, Vol. 5l, pp. 5-32.

Good,  T. L. (December l982).  "How Teachers' Expectations Affect 
Results."  American Education, Vol. l8, No. l0, pp. 25-32.

Good,  T.  L.,  and Brophy,  J. E. (l984).  Looking In Classrooms 
(3rd edition).  New York:  Harper and Row.

Morine-Dershimer,  G. (Winter l983).  "Instructional Strategy and 
the Creation of Classroom Status."  American Educational Research 
Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 645-66l. 

Purkey,  S.,  and Smith, M. (March l983).  "Effective Schools:  A 
Review."  The Elementary School Journal, Vol. 83, No. 4, pp. 427-
452.