Teacher Expectancy Effect

This image shows an Elementary School Teacher working with her students in a group learning setting.

Teacher expectancy effect is a very interesting topic of discussion. The basis behind this theory is that a teacher's expectations can have an impact on how well the student does. I chose this topic because it got me thinking about how much a teacher really could affect the success of students. How often are we effected by other's expectations throughout our lives without even realizing it?

Another blog I found by Chestnut ESL also talks about Teacher Expectancy Effect. They discuss the study that was conducted by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, the first people who realized and studied the effects of poeple's expectations. Robert and Lenore published the results of their study and called it Pygmalion Effect. The Pygmalion Effect is a more general explanation on how expectations of others can change the performance of an individual. The Pygmalion Effect asserts that “one’s expectations about a person can eventually lead that person to behave and achieve in ways that confirm those expectations" (Chestnut ESL Blog). To read more about their study, visit the blog at http://eslchestnut.com/2011/10/29/the-pygmalion-effect-the-effects-of-teachers-expectations/.


Scholarly Articles:

"The Longitudinal Relations of Teacher Expectations to Achievement in the Early School Years"

The following link will take you to an article on the US National Library of Medicine website. As the title expains, the authors of this article look at the relationship between teacher expectations of students during their early schooling.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2860190/


"Teacher Suspiciousness of Experimenter's Intent and the Mediation of Teach Expectancy Effects"

The following link will take you to an article that cover some more about Teacher Expectancy Effect and how the same phenomenon is also apparent when it comes to supervisor-employee relationships. Go to the link and then click PDF Full Text in the left margin to view to entire article.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=5b2de649-b497-4025-9ad5-bb1bdbd62cae%40sessionmgr113&vid=5&hid=128&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=aph&AN=7300069


Internet Sites:

The following link will take you to the website of education.com where they talk about the effects of teacher expectancy effect. They describe a few particular behaviors that can be directly correlated to a student's performance in school.

http://www.education.com/reference/article/teachers-expectations-affect-learning/

The following link will take you to a site that contains another blog that discusses teacher expectancy effect. It also gives suggestions on how teachers can change their expectactions.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/18/161159263/teachers-expectations-can-influence-how-students-perform

 

Video:

The following youtube video shows how one school in Portland, Oregon is improving the achievement of minority and low-income students by focusing on teamwork, individualized instruction and ongoing assessments.

News Article:

Here is a link to a recent news article by Education News that describes how high teacher expectations raise student achievement.

http://www.educationnews.org/k-12-schools/research-high-teacher-expectations-raise-student-achievement/