Teacher expectations and their impact on student outcomes

Teachers' Expectations

Prospectus:

This research study will examine the impact of teachers' expectation on students' overall academic achievement. The research will be conducted at Huntington Park High School, located in the city of Huntington Park. It is one of the largest high schools in Los Angeles Unified School District and has an enrollment of over 5000 students with 3-track calendar. The ethnic backgrounds of the students consist of 98.6% Latino, 0.6% black and 0.3% white. The students of Huntington Park High School (HPHS) have not been challenged to perform to their best abilities. One of the reasons may be that the teachers perceive them as incapable and lacking motivation, and so they feel it is unfair or hopeless to expect more from the students. The subtle messages received from their teachers may make the students feel incapable of handling demanding work. This could also be a factor in the students' low self-esteem and motivation.

The purpose of this study is to determine if the teachers' expectation plays a major role on Latino students' academic achievement.

Null Hypothesis

There is a positive relationship between teachers' expectation and students' academic performance.

Alternative Hypothesis

There is not a positive relationship between teachers' expectation and students' academic performance.

Significance of the Study

The significance of the study is based on the researcher's commitment to education in general and to the students of the HPHS in particular. The author believes that raising expectation changes students' attitude toward school and encourages them to exert extra effort to meet the expectation and the API (state what API is) standard. As a teacher and a member of the institution of learning, the author has special interest in the outcome of the program and feels obligated to assist the students in order to achieve the state academic standard.

Literature Review preliminary review of the literature pertaining to teachers' expectation was conducted to support the present study. The literature helps to explain how teachers form expectations about the students on the basis of their previous experiences and how raising the expectations can influence students' academic achievement. The literature supports the author's belief that when teachers expect students to do well, they tend to do well; when teachers expect students to fail, they tend to fail.

Teachers normally try to make predictions about students and their academic performance or behavior on the first day of school. On the basis of prediction, teachers form expectations that seem to follow the notion of self-fulfilling prophecy. According to Brehm and Kassim (1996) the idea of self-fulfilling prophecy is that once we peg a student ahead of time as troublemaker, or non-scholar, or likely to be self-centered, and treat that student accordingly, the student will fall into our predicted category. That means our negative prophecies or expectations come true. Thomas (1928) suggested that the teachers should understand the term of self-fulfilling prophecy which states that if men define a situation as real, they are real in their consequences. Understanding how it works could help in reducing the effects on the students.

The 'Pygmalion in the classroom', (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968) is based on the idea that the teachers' expectations have a direct effect on students' academic performance. The authors further examine the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy and its effects on student behavior. The main argument of the book is that the expectation that teachers have about their students' behavior can unconsciously influence such behavior, and so also affect student academic performance. This influence or self-fulfilling prophecy could have negative or positive impact on the students. The authors believe that there is always a correlation between teachers' expectation and students' academic achievement.

To close the achievement gap between students who are making the grade and those who are not, teachers need to interrupt the self-fulfilling prophecy. One way to do that is to develop and express high expectations of the students. All teachers have high hopes and expectations for their students. However, some use a better approach in communicating their expectations to the students. As a teacher, the researcher has noticed a tendency to expect less of those students who show little interest to learning. Or sometimes, in feeling sorry for students who face many disadvantages, the researcher also has the tendency of trying to reduce their responsibilities. But reducing the tasks and lowering the standards may not be advantageous to the students. Tauber (1997) explains that this may give them the message that they can get away from the responsibility by forming some excuses. It also takes away their self-confidence and self-esteem.

Methodology and Procedure review of the literature on teachers' expectations and students' performance will be conducted. A survey approach and quasi-experimental methodology will be used for this study. The following specific procedures will be applied.

Research Design

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of teachers' high expectations on students' academic performance. To determine the connection between these two variables, teachers' expectation and students' performance, the researcher needs to choose and apply the method of inquiry that best fits to the research question. There are two modes of inquiries available to the researcher; the quantitative and qualitative modes of inquiry. The qualitative research methods are designed to help researchers understand the meanings people assign to social phenomena and to explain the mental process underlying behaviors. The hypotheses are generated during data collection and analysis, and measurement tends to be subjective.

To examine the causal explanation and to establish the idea that the teachers' high expectations influence the students' academic performance, the researcher will utilize the quantitative method. The researcher believes in the quantitative technique which is based on the sampling and structured approach as the most appropriate and reliable method for this study. Since the true experimental method is simply not always possible in this study (say why), the quasi-experimental mood of inquiry will be applied to the population. (explain this a little further)

Sample Selection

The population for this quasi- experimental research will consist of all students from the 9th and 10th grades that have enrolled for the fall 2003-2004. Twenty teachers from three different academic departments are selected for the survey.

Data Collection Methods

Since the study examines the effect of teacher expectations on the Latino students' academic performance the bulk of data will be gathered from the teachers and the students' academic activities. A survey will be conducted to determine whether the teachers' expectations have any impact on students' overall performance. A questionnaire with ten questions with the answers arranged on the Likert scale- strongly agree, agree, strongly disagree, disagree will be given to the teachers. The teachers' response for each choice will be marked and organized in a statistical table. The researcher utilizes the quantitative method in order to quantify the respondents and develop a statistical table.