8/6/2019 Teacher's Expectations...

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"Why did you call on me? I didn't have my hand up!"Teacher Expectations

and Student Achievementby Sam KermanMr. Kerman has perfected techniques in a long- term Los Angeles

Project that may have important implications for teachers everywhere.Mr. Smith, eighth grade social

studies teacher, has just posed aquestion to his class: "Whatadvantages did the North haveover the South during the CivilWar .

Fol lowing a reasonable pause,Mr. Smith calls upon Betty toanswer. Betty stares at Mr.Smith incredulously and asks,"Why did you cal l on me? Ididn't have my hand up!"Betty's response is familiar to

all experienced teachers. And itdidn't surprise Mr. Smith. All ofher teachers perceive Betty as alow achiever; she rarely answersquest ions when cal led upon. Soteachers call on her lessfrequently than others students.Wh y bother? I t 's a waste of t imeof valuable class time.Moreover, calling on anunprepared s tudent embarrassesthat student in front of his peers,according to the convent ionalwi sdom.

What Mr. Smith may not beaware of is the fact that Betty, asearly as Kindergarten, learnedthat she's not cal led uponfrequently as other students inclass; over the years she hasprogress ively " tuned out ." Wecan now raise a very importantquest ion: Was Bet ty unable toanswer because she wasincapable of fol lowing the classdiscuss ion, or because shewasn't l i s tening and didn't hearthe question?

Extensive research shows thatteacher interaction with studentsperceived as low achievers isless motivating and lesssupportive as high achievers.Research also tells us that highachievers receive more responseopportunities and are givenmore time to respond toquest ions . When high achievershave difficulty, teachers tend to

delve, give clues, or rephrasethe quest ions more f requent lyasked with low achievers. Thisfact should not be construed asan indictment of teachers, sincethe biases demonstrated inteacher/student interactions are,in most cases, unconscious.Discriminatory interactions canas easily be identified betweenparents and their children,principals and their teachers,and corporate executives andtheir administrative staffs.

Calling on students to answerquestions, express ideas, or giveopinions constitutes one methodof involving students in classactivity. As we learned in thatfirst teacher prep course, givingstudents opportunities torespond is a useful teachingstrategy. Yet researchersThomas L. Good and Jere R.Brophy discovered as long agoas 1969 that students perceivedas high achievers were beinggiven response opportunitiesthree to four times morefrequent ly then those perceivedas low achievers.

During inservice training, morethan 2,000 teachers inCalifornia, Pennsylvania, Ohio,and Oregon were asked whythey believed high achieversmight be cal led upon morefrequent ly than lows.Overwhelmingly, the responseswere: "It might embarrass mylow achievers" ; "The wholeclass benefits from a goodresponse"; "It is important tocover the curriculum content,which leaves little time forcalling on those who areunprepared, s low, or confused."

Is it any wonder that lowachievers who have tuned out ofclassroom discussions over aperiod of years react with ablank stare when called upon?The stare only reinforces the

teacher 's percept ion of thestudent's low status.

Par t of the remedy should beobvious. Teachers must startcalling on perceived low asfrequently as they call uponother students in class. Not thatthe lows wil l suddenly comeforth with brilliant responses.They won ' t . But we haveproven, over the course of aseven-year project, that theywill, within a relatively shortt ime, begin " tuning in." Theybecome conscious of beingcal led upon more f requent ly,and they begin to adapt to thenew situation.

Normally, one def ines lowachievers as those studentsfunct ioning below grade levelexpectancy; high achieversfunct ion above grade level .However , a teacher must real izethat the terms " low achiever"and "high achiever" are aboveall else relative. As an example,consider a Nat ional Meri tfinalist enrolled in a freshmanphysics class at MIT. He mayvery well function at a levelbelow most of the other studentsin his class. In the eyes of hisprofessor, such a student is alow achiever. A student in afourth grade remedial class, onthe other hand, may beperceived as a high achiever, theone selected to carry notes to theoffice, assist in distributingmaterials, or lead the Pledge ofAllegiance. The point is that allclassrooms, regardless ofnumber enrolled, curriculumcontent, grouping strategies,etc., will, in the eye of theteacher , have low and highachievers . And how they areperceived wil l predictablydetermine how they are taughtfrom day to day.