The Importance Of Teacher Expectations In Education

For about two decades, educational researchers have been concerned with the possibility that teachers communicate different performance expectations for students they believe to have low versus high achievement potential. In planning for and interacting with entire classes, small groups, and individuals, teachers are guided by their beliefs about what students need and by their expectations about how students will respond if treated in particular ways (Good T. L., Two Decades of Research on Teacher Expectations: Findings and Future Directions, 1987). In general, teachers expect students to behave in specific ways and attain certain levels of achievements; thus, teachers behave differently toward different students. This differentiating behavior affects and, over time, will shape students’ self-concepts, achievement motivation, and levels of aspiration. High-expectation students will be led to achieve at high levels; low-expectation students’ achievement will decline. And, over time, students’ achievement and behavior will conform more and more closely to teachers’ expectations (Good T. L., 1981).

Most of the research conducted to date has examined differential behavior of teachers toward high- and low-achievement students (Good T. L., 1981). The communication of differential expectations is often unconscious on the part of teachers. Or, in cases where teachers are aware that they are practicing differential treatment, they often see this as appropriate to their students