Abstract
Teacher expectation models have theorized that expectations are likely to affect student socio-psychological as well as academic outcomes. Effects on socio-psychological outcomes, however, have been less frequently studied. Further, ways in which teacher class-level over- or underestimation of students can contribute to relations with student beliefs have been seldom investigated. In a longitudinal study, relations between student reading achievement and student beliefs were explored, as were these relations for students with high and low expectation teachers. The participants were 31 teachers whose class-level expectations were more than 0.5 SD above or below their 692 students’ beginning year achievement. Structural equation modeling showed that reading achievement and class-level teacher expectations predicted student self-reported teacher support and academic competence but not student reading self-concept, even though there were no differences in student reading achievement or beliefs at the beginning of the year. By end-of-year, students of high expectation teachers achieved at higher levels and held more positive beliefs than their underestimated counterparts. When multiple student beliefs were explored in one model, many of the paths between teacher class-level expectations, achievement, and student beliefs were indirect rather than direct. This implies a need for researchers to consider a range of student beliefs and relations with academic outcomes rather than a narrow focus on one belief construct as is common in the literature. The study also has practical implications in showing positive benefits for students when teachers have high class-level expectations.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alder, N. (2002). Interpretations of the meaning of care: Creating caring relationships in urban middle school classrooms. Urban Education, 37, 241–266.
Allen, J., Gregory, A., Mikami, A., Lun, J., Hamre, B., & Pianta, R. (2013). Observations of effective teacher-student interactions in secondary school classrooms: Predicting student achievement with the Classroom Assessment Scoring System—Secondary. School Psychology Review, 42, 76–98.
Babad, E. (1990). Calling on students: How a teacher’s behavior can acquire disparate meanings in students’ minds. Journal of Classroom Interaction, 25, 1–4.
Babad, E. (1995). The “teacher’s pet” phenomenon, teachers’ differential behavior, and students’ morale. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 361–374.
Babad, E. (1998). Preferential affect: The crux of the teacher expectancy issue. In J. Brophy (Ed.), Advances in research on teaching: Expectations in the classroom (Vol. 7, pp. 183–214). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Babad, E. (2009). The social psychology of the classroom. New York: Routledge.
Benner, A. D., & Mistry, R. S. (2007). Congruence of mother and teacher educational expectations and low-income youth’s academic competence. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(1), 140–153.
Braun, C. (1976). Teacher expectation: Socio-psychological dynamics. Review of Educational Research, 46, 185–213.
Brophy, J. E. (1983). Research on the self-fulfilling prophecy and teacher expectations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75, 631–661.
Brophy, J. E. (1985). Teacher-student interaction. In J. B. Dusek (Ed.), Teacher expectancies (pp. 303–328). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Brophy, J. E. (2004). Motivating students to learn. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Brophy, J. E., & Good, T. L. (1970a). Teacher-child dyadic interaction system mirrors for behaviour: An anthology of observation instruments continued (Vol. A). Philadelphia: Research for Better Schools Inc.
Brophy, J. E., & Good, T. L. (1970b). Teachers’ communication of differential expectations for children’s classroom performance: Some behavioral data. Journal of Educational Psychology, 61, 365–374.
Brophy, J. E., & Good, T. L. (1974). Teacher-student relationships: Causes and consequences. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Brophy, J. E., & Good, T. L. (1986). Teacher behavior and student achievement. In M. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3rd ed., pp. 328–375). New York, NY: MacMillan Publishing Company.
Brown, T. A. (2014). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Byrne, B. M. (2010). Sructural equation modelling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications and programming (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Chen, Y.-H., Thompson, M. S., Kromrey, J. D., & Chang, G. H. (2011). Relations of student perceptions of teacher oral feedback with teacher expectancies and student self-concept. Journal of Experimental Education, 79, 452–477. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2010.547888.
Cloer, T., & Dalton, S. R. (2001). Gender and grade differences in reading achievement and in self-concept as readers. Journal of Reading Education, 26(2), 31–36.
Cooper, H. M. (1985). Models of teacher expectation communication. In J. B. Dusek (Ed.), Teacher expectancies (pp. 135–158). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Cooper, H. M., & Tom, D. Y. H. (1984). Teacher expectation research: A review with implications for classroom instruction. The Elementary School Journal, 85, 77–89.
Craven, R., & Marsh, H. (2004). The challenge for counsellors: Understanding and addressing indigenous secondary students’ aspirations, self-concepts and barriers to achieving their aspirations. Australian Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 14, 16–33.
de Boer, H., Bosker, R. J., & Van der Werf, M. (2010). Sustainability of teacher expectation bias effects on long-term student performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 168–179. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017289.
Demanet, J., & Van Houtte, M. (2012). Teachers’ attitudes and students’ opposition. School misconduct as a reaction to teachers’ diminshed effort and affect. Teaching and Teacher Education, 28, 860–869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate2012.03.008.
Education Counts. (n.d.). Teacher workforce. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/schooling/workforce/teacher-workforce.
Elashoff, J. D., & Snow, R. E. (1971). Pygmalion reconsidered. Worthington, OH: Jones.
Fan, X., & Sivo, S. A. (2007). Sensitivity of fit indices to model misspecification and model types. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 509–529.
Gilbert, M. C., Musu-Gillette, L. E., Woolley, M. E., Karabenick, S. A., Strutchens, M. E., & Martin, W. G. (2014). Student perceptions of the classroom environment: Relations to motivation and achievement in mathematics. Learning Environments Research, 17, 287–304. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-013-9151-9.
Graham, J. W. (2009). Missing data analysis: Making it work in the real world. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 549–576. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.58.110405.085530.
Hancock, G. R. (1997). Structural equation modeling methods of hypothesis testing of latent variable means. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 30, 91–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481756.1997.12068926.
Harris, M. J., & Rosenthal, R. (1985). Mediation of interpersonal expectancy effects: 31 meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 97, 363–386.
Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London, UK: Routledge.
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. London: Routledge.
Hay, I., Ashman, A. F., & Van Kraayenoord, C. E. (1998). Educational characteristics of students with high or low self-concept. Psychology in the Schools, 35, 391–400.
Hinnant, J. B., O’Brien, M. O., & Ghazarian, S. R. (2009). The longitudinal relations of teacher expectations to achievement in the early school years. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101, 662–670. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014306.
Howes, C., Burchinal, M., Pianta, R., Bryant, D., Early, D., Clifford, R., et al. (2008). Ready to learn? Children’s per-academic achievement in pre-Kindergarten programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 23, 27–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2007.05.02.
Lazarides, R., & Watt, H. M. G. (2015). Girls’ and boys’ perceived mathematics teacher beliefs, classroom learning environments and mathematical career intentions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 41, 51–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.11.005.
Li, Z., & Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2015). Teacher expectation effects in the college foreign language classroom. London: Routledge.
Little, T. D. (1997). Mean and covariance structures (MACS) analyses of cross-cultural data: Practical and theoretical issues. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 32, 53–76. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr3201_3.
Marsh, H. W. (1990). Self description questionnaire—1 manual. Campbelltown: University of Western Sydney.
Marsh, H. W., Hau, K. T., & Wen, Z. (2004). In search of golden rules: Comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cutoff values for fit indexes and dangers in overgeneralizing Hu and Bentler’s findings. Structural Equation Modeling, 11, 320–341. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328007sem1103_2.
Marsh, H. W., & Yeung, A. S. (1997). Causal effects of academic self-concept on academic achievement: Structural equation models of longitudinal data. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 41–54.
McDonald, L., Flint, A., Rubie-Davies, C. M., Peterson, E., Watson, P., & Garrett, L. (2014). Teaching high expectation strategies to teachers through an intervention process. Professional Development in Education, 42, 290–307. https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2014.980009.
McKown, C., & Weinstein, R. S. (2002). Modeling the role of child ethnicity and gender in children’s differential response to teacher expectations. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 32, 159–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2002.tb01425.x.
McKown, C., & Weinstein, R. S. (2008). Teacher expectations, classroom context and the achievement gap. Journal of School Psychology, 46, 235–261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2007.05.001.
Ministry of Education. (2015). The New Zealand curriculum. Wellington: Ministry of Education.
Mistry, R. S., White, E. S., Benner, A. D., & Huynh, V. W. (2009). A longitudinal study of the simultaneous influence of mothers’ and teachers’ educational expectations on low-income youth’s academic achievement. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38, 826–838.
Pianta, R. C., Belsky, J., Vandergrift, N., Houts, R., & Morrison, F. J. (2008). Classroom effects on children’s achievement trajectories in elementary school. American Educational Research Journal, 45, 365–397.
Pianta, R. C., Hamre, B. K., & Allen, J. P. (2012). Teacher-student relationships and engagement: Conceptualizing, measuring, and improving the capacity of classroom interactions. In S. L. Christenson, A. L. Reschly, & C. Wylie (Eds.), Handbook of research on student engagement. New York: Springer.
Pianta, R. C., & Stuhlman, M. W. (2004). Teacher-child relationships and children’s success in the first years of school. School Psychology Review, 33, 444–458.
Raudenbush, S. W. (1984). Magnitude of teacher expectancy effects on pupil IQ as a function of the credibility of expectancy induction: A synthesis of findings from 18 experiments. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 85–97.
Rosenthal, R. (1994). Interpersonal expectancy effects: A 30-year perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 176–179. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770698.
Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils’ intellectual development. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Rowe, E. W., Kim, S., Baker, J. A., Kamphaus, R. W., & Horne, A. M. (2010). Student personal perception of classroom climate: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 70, 858–879. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164410378085.
Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2004). Expecting the best: Instructional practices, teacher beliefs and student outcomes. (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2006). Teacher expectations and student self-perceptions: Exploring relationships. Psychology in the Schools, 43, 537–552. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.20169.
Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2007). Classroom interactions: Exploring the practices of high and low expectation teachers. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77, 289–306. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709906X101601.
Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2015). Becoming a high expectation teacher: Raising the bar. London: Routledge.
Rubie-Davies, C. M., Hattie, J., & Hamilton, R. (2006). Expecting the best for New Zealand students: Teacher expectations and academic outcomes. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 429–444. https://doi.org/10.1348/000709905X53589.
Rubie-Davies, C. M., & Peterson, E. R. (2011). Teacher expectations and beliefs: Influences on the socioemotional environment of the classroom. In C. M. Rubie-Davies (Ed.), Educational psychology: Concepts, research and challenges (pp. 134–149). London: Routledge.
Rubie-Davies, C. M., & Peterson, E. R. (2016). Relations between teachers’ achievement over- and underestimation, and students’ beliefs for Maori and Pakeha students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 47, 72–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2016.01.001.
Rubie-Davies, C. M., Peterson, E. R., Sibley, C. G., & Rosenthal, R. (2015). A teacher expectation intervention: Modeling the practices of high expectation teachers. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 40, 72–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.03.003.
Rubie-Davies, C. M., & Rosenthal, R. (2016). Intervening in teachers’ expectations: A random effects meta-analytic approach to examining the effectiveness of an intervention. Learning and Individual Differences, 50, 83–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2016.07.014.
Rubie-Davies, C. M., Weinstein, R. S., Huang, F. L., Gregory, A., Cowan, P., & Cowan, C. (2014). Successive teacher expectancy effects across the early school years. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 35, 181–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2014.03.006.
Samdal, O., Wold, B., & Bronis, M. (1999). Relatoinship between students’ perceptions of school environment, their satisfaction with school and perceived academic achievement: An international study. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 10, 296–320. https://doi.org/10.1076/sesi.10.3.296.3502.
Smith, M. L. (1980). Teacher expectations. Evaluation in Education, 4, 53–55.
Snow, R. E. (1969). Unfinished pygmalion [review of pygmalion in the classroom]. Contemporary Psychology, 14, 197–199.
Te Kete Ipurangi. (2016). Literacy online. Retrieved from https://literacyonline.tki.org.nz/Literacy-Online/.
Te Kete Ipurangi. (n.d.). e-asTTle. Retrieved from https://e-asttle.tki.org.nz/.
Thorndike, R. L. (1968). Review of the book “Pygmalion in the classroom”. American Educational Research Journal, 5, 708–711.
Urhahne, D. (2015). Teacher behavior as a mediator to the relationship between teacher judgment and students’ motivation and emotion. Teaching and Teacher Education, 45, 73–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.09.006.
Vandenberg, R. J., & Lance, C. E. (2000). A review and synthesis of the measurement invariance literature: Suggestions, practices and recommendations for organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 3, 4–70.
Vekiri, I. (2010). Boys’ and girls’ ICT beliefs: Do teachers matter? Computers & Education, 55, 16–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2009.11.013.
Wang, S., Rubie-Davies, C. M., & Meissel, K. (2018). A systematic review of the teacher expectation literature over the past 30 years. Educational Research and Evaluation, 24, 124–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2018.1548798.
Wang, S., Rubie-Davies, C. M., & Meissel, K. (2019). Instructional practices and classroom interactions of high and low expectation teachers in China. Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal, 22, 841–866. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-019-09507-4.
Weinstein, R. S. (1976). Reading group membership in first grade: Teacher behaviours and pupil experience over time. Journal of Educational Psychology, 68, 103–116.
Weinstein, R. S. (1983). Student perceptions of schooling. The Elementary School Journal, 83, 286–312.
Weinstein, R. S. (1985). Student mediation of classroom expectancy effects. In J. B. Dusek (Ed.), Teacher expectancies (pp. 329–350). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Weinstein, R. S. (1989). Perceptions of classroom processes and student motivation: Children’s views of self-fulfilling prophecies. In R. Ames & C. Ames (Eds.), Research on motivation in education (Vol. 3, pp. 187–221). New York, NY: Academic Press.
Weinstein, R. S. (1993). Children’s knowledge of differential treatment in school: Implications for motivation. In T. M. Tomlinson (Ed.), Motivating students to learn: Overcoming barriers to high achievement (pp. 197–224). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.
Weinstein, R. S. (2002). Reaching higher: The power of expectations in schooling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Weinstein, R. S., Marshall, H. H., Brattesani, K. A., & Middlestadt, S. E. (1982). Student perceptions of differential teacher treatment in open and traditional classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74, 678–692.
Weinstein, R. S., & McKown, C. (1998). Expectancy effects in “context”: Listening to the voices of students and teachers. In J. Brophy (Ed.), Advances in research on teaching. Expectations in the classroom (Vol. 7, pp. 215–242). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Weinstein, R. S., & Middlestadt, S. E. (1979). Student perceptions of teacher interactions with male high and low achievers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 71, 421–431.
Weinstein, R. S., & Worrell, F. C. (Eds.). (2016). Achieving college dreams: How a university-charter district partnership created an early college high school. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Wu, A. D., Li, Z., & Zumbo, B. D. (2007). Decoding the meaning of factorial invariance and updating the practice of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis: A demonstration with TIMSS data. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation, 12(3), 1–26.
Yeung, A. S., Craven, R., & Ali, J. (2013). Self-concepts and educational outcomes of indigenous Australian students in urban and rural school settings. School Psychology International, 34, 405–427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034312446890.
Zhou, J., & Urhahne, D. (2013). Teacher judgment, student motivation, and the mediating effect of attributions. European Journal of Psychology in Education, 28, 275–295. https://doi.org/10.1007/sl0212-012-0114-9.
Zhu, M., & Urhahne, D. (2015). Teachers’ judgements of students’ foreign-language achievement. European Journal of Psychology in Education, 30, 21–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-014-0225-6.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the Marsden Fund Council from Government funding administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand. Funding was also provided by the Cognition Education Trust. The first author would like to acknowledge the statistical support of Professor Gavin Brown during the early phases of this paper. We would also like to acknowledge the superb feedback and guidance that we received from our reviewer for Social Psychology of Education: An International Journal.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflict of interest in relation to this manuscript.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rubie-Davies, C., Meissel, K., Alansari, M. et al. Achievement and beliefs outcomes of students with high and low expectation teachers. Soc Psychol Educ 23, 1173–1201 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-020-09574-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-020-09574-y