Comprehensive Guide to Developing High Expectations in High Expectations Teaching
Overview of High Expectations Teaching
Teachers' expectations of their students’ learning are often more significant in influencing student progress than the actual abilities of the pupils.
High expectation teachers (HET) operate under the belief that students will learn at an accelerated pace and will improve their level of achievement significantly.
These teachers exhibit more positive attitudes toward their learners and utilize more effective teaching practices.
This research guide, produced by The Education Hub, explores the differences between low expectation teachers (LET) and high expectation teachers, offering practical strategies for shifting toward a high-expectations model.
The Importance and Impact of Teacher Expectations
Substantial Impact on Outcomes: A teacher’s belief about what students can achieve has a profound impact on learning and progress. Studies suggest the effects of these expectations are pervasive throughout the school year.
Uniformity of Expectations: Research indicates that teachers often have uniformly high or low expectations for an entire class of students, not just individual students.
Accelerated vs. Normal Progress: High expectation teachers believe students will make accelerated progress (e.g., moving from average to above average), whereas low expectation teachers generally do not expect significant changes in achievement levels over a year's tuition.
Rubie-Davies Research: Christine Rubie-Davies from the University of Auckland has investigated these expectations in New Zealand classrooms. Her findings include:
Low expectations create a "chain of low-level activities" which reduces learning opportunities.
Low expectation teachers often present less cognitively demanding experiences, accept lower standards of work, and focus heavily on rules and procedures.
High expectation teachers provide more advanced opportunities, resulting in larger achievement gains for students.
Student Awareness: Students are highly sensitive to teacher expectations. They perceive subtle cues through words, tone of voice, and non-verbal communication.
Students with LETs often view themselves more negatively over time.
Students with HETs maintain or develop positive attitudes and identities as capable learners, even if their progress is only average.
Psychological Factors: High expectations lead to higher student engagement, motivation, and self-efficacy.
Cognitive and Instructional Differences Between LETs and HETs
Classroom Procedures and Routines:
LET: Constantly remind students of procedures and routines.
HET: Establish procedures that students manage themselves.
Focus of Communication:
LET: Make procedural and directional statements focused on behaviors and activities (e.g., "Here is your worksheet, off you go"). Use more negative statements regarding learning and behavior.
HET: Focus attention on learning, teaching new concepts, relating content to prior knowledge, and explaining/exploring concepts (e.g., "With that title, what do you think it is going to be about?"). Use more positive statements to create a positive climate.
Learning Intentions and Success Criteria:
LET: Communicate only the details of the activities to be completed.
HET: Explicitly communicate learning intentions and success criteria to the entire class.
Questioning Techniques:
LET: Ask predominantly closed questions based on facts (e.g., "What’s the formula for finding area?").
HET: Ask open questions designed to extend thinking and require deep reflection (e.g., "And why do you say that? What clues in the story made you think that?").
Goal Setting:
LET: Set global goals for learning to frame lesson planning.
HET: Set specific goals with students that are regularly reviewed and integrated into teaching.
Sequence of Instruction:
LET: Take a directive role; provide little opportunity for student choice; use a linear, incremental fashion.
HET: Take a facilitative role; support student choice; use assessments and monitoring to adjust strategies dynamically.
Grouping and Peer Interaction:
LET: Use ability groupings and design different activities for each level; use repetition for "low-ability" children.
HET: Encourage students to work with a variety of peers for positive modeling; provide less differentiation and allow all learners to engage in advanced activities.
Instructional Time Distribution:
LET: Spend more time with low-achievers while giving high-achievers independent work.
HET: Work with all students equally.
Feedback and Response to Error:
LET: Give praise or criticism based on accuracy (e.g., "Well done. That's right."). Respond to incorrect answers by telling the student they are wrong and asking someone else.
HET: Give specific, instructional feedback relative to goals (e.g., "I like the way you kept your numbers in straight columns so you didn't get the tens and hundreds muddled"). Respond to errors by exploring the answer, rephrasing, or scaffolding.
Motivation Base:
LET: Use incentives and rewards.
HET: Base learning opportunities around students' interests.
Indicators of Expectations in Practice
Open Questioning: Reflects the belief that students have good ideas to offer (HET).
Praising Performance Only: Focuses on correctness rather than effort. This leads to performance-oriented mentalities or performance-avoidance strategies in struggling students, hindering motivation (LET).
Formative Assessment: Enables students to make better decisions by providing instructional feedback and next steps (HET).
Question Rephrasing: Enabling success through guidance rather than rejection (HET).
Fixed Ability Grouping: Constrains students by the activities set for them; affects motivation and self-perception (LET).
Privileging High-Achievers: Granting autonomy to high-achievers while regulating low-achievers conveys the message that some students are more esteemed (LET).
Instructional Pace: Using a slower pace and repetition for low achievers confines their progress to the teacher’s presentation speed (LET).
Choice and Motivation: Believing achievement is linked to motivation and effort rather than innate ability leads to providing diverse activities and student choice (HET).
Individual Goals: Setting specific, revisited goals allows students to progress at their own pace and fosters independence (HET).
Strategies for Class Climate and Relationships
Building Cohesion: Create a warm, supportive climate through daily class-building activities. Use buddies, inter-group games, circle time, and positive psychology resources to increase positive emotions.
Authentic Trust: Show trust by giving students responsibility for their learning. Research shows students can detect disingenuous warmth and resent differing levels of emotional support.
Personal Connection: Take time to know students and their interests personally. Authentic teacher-student relationships positively influence academic progress and peer relationships.
Interest Integration: Incorporate student interests into activities to ensure high engagement. Clear goals and feedback combined with student choice improve the school experience.
Self-Managed Routines: Establish routines early in the year and give ownership to students. This reduces the need for procedural reminders and keeps classroom talk focused on learning.
Goal Setting Strategies
Communicating Goals: Use clear frameworks like the acronym WALT (We Are Learning To) at the start of lessons. Display goals and success criteria prominently.
Co-constructed Criteria: Ask children to help generate success criteria (e.g., "We have used at least four describing words").
Providing the "Big Picture": Explain the "why" behind goals to help all students engage (e.g., "Describing words make stories more interesting for the reader").
Student-Led Goals: Facilitate students setting their own goals. A recommended timeframe for primary students is one month, while younger students might need weekly goals.
SMART Goals: Teach students to set Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Results-oriented, and Time-bound goals. Commitment is higher when goals are visible and shared.
Example 1: "By the end of this month I will be able to add and subtract two-digit numbers accurately at least of the time (I need to get out of correct)."
Example 2: "By the end of this month I will choose words in my reading books that I don't know and find out what they mean."
Proximal Goals: Break larger, challenging goals into smaller, proximal steps to inform students of their success and enhance self-efficacy.
Mastery over Performance:
Mastery Goals: Emphasize the process of learning, self-improvement, and skill acquisition. These are associated with deeper thinking, persistence, and systematic processing.
Performance Goals: Based on outcome or demonstrating competence relative to others. These imply winners and losers.
For lower-achieving students, mastery goals are crucial for maintaining motivation.
Feedback Integration: Use portfolios, self-evaluation, and peer feedback. Feedback must follow instruction and target current understanding to reduce frustration and risk of failure.
Grouping and Differentiation Strategies
Flexible Heterogeneous Grouping: Form small groups ( to students) comprising a range of abilities and genders.
Reshuffling: Change groups frequently (at least once a month, sometimes weekly). This promotes social support, peer modeling, and a positive climate.
Grouping Ideas: Use random methods like shuffling name cards, clock spinners, or criteria like favorite colors, authors, pets, or shoe size.
Avoid Strict Stratification: Some HETs use ability grouping only for specific instruction (not general learning) or draw students together only when a specific skill is needed.
Minimizing Differentiation Gap: Ensure all students can access all activities. Activities should allow for various levels of attainment. Students generally select activities suited to their skill level (avoiding what is too easy/boring or too hard/frustrating).
Student Autonomy in Reading: Provide a range of options for selection, such as:
Pair/share, poem cards, comics, themed book boxes, plays, magazines.
Challenge corners, joke boxes, listening posts, 'Make it' boxes, buddy reading, non-fiction, and computer reading activities.
Use tools like a "tic tac toe" grid to allow students to choose three activities.
Rethinking Pedagogical Beliefs for Transformation
Control of Learning: Reflect on who holds the control. Entrusting decision-making to students demonstrates high expectations for their contribution.
Sociograms: Investigate student relationships using questionnaires where students nominate peers they want in their group to analyze class breadth. Ensure confidentiality to prevent gossip.
Questioning Equity: Audit who is being asked questions and the depth of those questions. Avoid reserving challenging, open-ended questions for high-achievers.
Reevaluating Ability Grouping: Mixed-ability groupings provide more equitable learning opportunities. Research shows low-achieving students narrow the achievement gap when given challenging instruction in supportive environments.
The Negative Loop of Differentiation: Excessive differentiation often leads to lower expectations, slower instructional pace, and negative effects on the self-esteem of both high and low achievers.
High Expectations Self-Assessment Checklist
Teachers are encouraged to check how often they use the following practices (Rarely, Sometimes, Often):
Asking open questions.
Praising effort rather than just correct answers.
Using regular formative assessment.
Rephrasing questions for incorrect answers.
Using mixed-ability and flexible groupings.
Encouraging students to work with a range of peers.
Providing a range of activities and allowing student choice.
Making explicit learning intentions and success criteria (and allowing students to contribute to them).
Giving students responsibility for their learning.
Getting to know each student personally and incorporating their interests.
Establishing self-managed routines.
Teaching SMART goals and reviewing them regularly.
Linking achievement to motivation and effort.
Allowing all learners to engage in advanced activities.
Giving specific, instructional feedback.
Managing behavior proactively and working with all students equally.