influence of teachers expectations on puils

Hargreaves- deviance in classrooms

• carried out interviews with teachers and classroom observations in two secondary schools and noted how students came to be typed or classified

• speculation- this involves teachers making guesses about students based on factors such as appearance, willingness to conform to discipline and how likeable they are

• working hypothesis- based on their interaction with students the teachers develop a theory about what kind of child each student is 

• elaboration-this hypothesis is tested in the classroom and either confirmed or rejected based on teachers experience 

• stabilisation- the teacher feels that he/she knows the student and tends to interpret everything about the student in terms of how they’ve been typed- therefore if a student has been labelled as deviant then it will be difficult for the teacher to see their actions in a positive light 

examination setting -Gillborn and youdell

• working class pupils are far more likely to be typed negatively by teachers 

• for example, a study of two London secondary schools G+Y found that teachers tended to allocate pupils to sets or ability groups based on how the students have been typed

• rather than relying in objective measures such s test results , they tend to use a ‘common sense’ understanding of ability to allocate students to sets 

• working class students were often perceived by teachers as disruptive, lacking in motivation or lacking parental support and so were labelled as being of ‘lower ability’ 

• teachers had lower expectations of them and often entering them for foundation level gcse exams where they were unable to achieve higher grades

dunne and gazeley

• their finding confirmed that students were judged based on social class 70% of students who were identified as underachievers were from the working classes 

• teacher commented positively on middle class parents and their support for their children wile working class parents were often seen as hostile to the school and unconcerned about their children’s behaviour 

• teachers made negative predictions against working class students such as poor educational achievement, unemployment , unskilled work, crime and early pregnancy 

• working class pupils viewed teachers attitudes towards them as negative e.g. complaining that teachers shouted at them and failed to explain things clearly as a reason for their lack in motivation

• class views influence teacher perceptions and labels

evaluation

• idea of self fulfilling prophecy has been questioned

• margaret fuller - study on working class black girls in a london comprehensive school

• teachers negative stereotypes derived from the fact that they were female and black

• they refused to live up to this expectation and they worked hard to prove teachers wrong by succeeding

rosenthal and jacobson

• tested all children with an iq test

• students given to teachers without knowledge of iq and they were told that they should expect rapid intellectual progress from students

• pupils in experimental group made more progress than the others

• result was higher teacher expectations

• therefore teacher expectations influence progress

• self fulfilling prophecy

gill born and youdell

• suggest that bright working class and ethnic minority students are often placed in lower sets because of their behaviour or assumptions teachers make about their ability and once placed tend to live up to the self fulfilling prophecy

ireson, hallam and hurely

• they argue that setting has no effect on educational achievement , in relation to science maths and english after comparing 45 comprehensive schools some using mixed ability

william and bartholomew

• some pupils in higher sets for maths were disadvantaged

• this supports labelling theory’s suggestion that setting can help to create a self fulfilling prophecy

woods

• he noted that some pupils move between conformity and rebellion to school rules , sometimes depending on which lesson they are in.

• pupils conform and rebel in a variety of ways using different strategies to survive school

• some conformists are ritualised who behave well but have little motivation to succeed while some rebellious students are not confrontational but may reject school tasks in favour of gossiping or doing their hair