Teacher Expectations & Testing - EPSY 2130

Teacher Expectations & Testing

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.

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.

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

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.

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).

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 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).

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.

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).

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!

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