Teacher Expectations & Testing - EPSY 2130

Teacher Expectations & Testing

Quiz Reminders

• Quizzes are distributed at the beginning of class.
• No quizzes will be given out after the first 5 minutes of class.
• Your name should be written on the quiz.
• Quizzes are due at 8:15 AM.

Today’s Objectives

• Quiz
• Last in-person class!
• The last exam will be on May 1st at 8:00 am in the normal classroom.
• Teacher Expectations, Intro to Testing
• Activity

Teacher Expectations: Pygmalion Effect

• Pygmalion effect: Forming or crafting an ideal product based on your own expectations.
• As applied to teachers: Seeing potential in students and bringing it out of them.

Rosenthal & Jacobsen (1968)

• Experimentally tested the effect of teacher expectations on student learning.
• Students in grades 1-6 were given an IQ test.
• 20% of students were identified as “bloomers,” students expected to improve dramatically over the school year.
• The bloomers were randomly selected by the researchers.
• Students were not made aware of their identification (to avoid impacting self-efficacy).
• Teachers were not made aware of the deception.

Rosenthal & Jacobsen (1968) - Results

• By the end of the school year, younger “bloomers” showed more improvement than non-bloomers.
• The identification was considered a self-fulfilling prophecy (groundless expectation that ends up becoming true due to expectations).
• It was hypothesized that teachers saw potential in these students and acted in ways to bring out academic growth:
  • High ability groups
  • More interactions with the teacher
  • More challenging lessons
  • More opportunities to ask questions
  • More praise
  • More warmth

Teacher Expectations - Considerations

• Some disagreed with the findings, and some failures to replicate (might be specific to younger learners).
• Teacher expectations come from many sources:
  • Prior experience with the student or close relatives.
  • Some evidence that teachers think physically attractive students are more intelligent (halo effect).
  • Stereotypes: teachers are more likely to have high expectations for some groups based on stereotypes than others.
    • On average, teachers have higher expectations for high SES than low SES students.
    • Higher expectations for Asian students > white students > Black/Hispanic students.

Teacher Expectations & Motivation

• Holding high standards for everyone is related to higher student goals and greater valuing of the subject.
• The effects of teacher expectations might be stronger for younger rather than older students.
• The effect may be stronger for low SES or racial minorities.
• The effect may be stronger in some subjects (math > reading).

Teacher Expectations - Prior Achievement & Impact

• Some teacher expectations are based on prior achievement.
• Sustaining expectation effect: student performance is maintained when teachers fail to recognize improvements.
• Pygmalion effect may be stronger for younger students.
• Sustaining expectation effect might take over as students get older.
• We have expectations for all students, but if we’re wrong, this could cost the student.
• Have high expectations for ALL!

Ability Grouping

• Ability grouping within classrooms is very common (~63%).
• It’s not clear that within-class ability grouping of students improves their learning.
  • Becker et al. (2014) found that high-ability students who were tracked one year early had mixed results when compared to high-ability peers who were not.
• Students in low-ability groups may get less rigorous questions or have less choice.
• Ability grouping often becomes another kind of grouping (by SES, race/ethnicity, language).

Flexible Grouping

• Grouping and regrouping students based on learning needs.
• An alternative to true ability grouping.
• Evidence suggests it boosts students’ mastery of content.
• Rely on accurate, recent diagnosis of skills: assess continuously.
• Differentiate instruction to groups, not just pace: assure all work is meaningful.
• Discourage comparison between groups: don’t name groups.
• Group by ability on only one or two subjects.

Activity

• What has been your personal experience with testing?
• What is the best way to assess students?
• How do you make sense of assessment results?

Classroom Measurement Terms

• Measurement: an evaluation expressed in numeric terms.
• Assessment: procedures used to obtain information about student performance
  • Formative assessment: ungraded testing used before or during instruction
    • E.g., pretest: determine students pre-existing knowledge, readiness, abilities
    • Aid in planning and diagnosis
  • Interim (growth) assessment: given at regular intervals to determine change
  • Summative assessment: “post-test” for achievement
• Standardized test: given under uniform conditions and scored using uniform procedures (typically at the state or national level).

Key Takeaways

• Motivation is a process (no such thing as an unmotivated student!)
• Learn from your students who have different backgrounds!
• Elaborative rehearsal → you remember things better when you make connections to what you already know!
• Care about your students as people!

Course Evaluations

• Please take a few minutes before the end of the semester to fill out the course evaluation here: https://webapps.franklin.uga.edu/evaluation/choose_eval.php