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Two developments in teacher expectation research formed the basis for the current study. First, researchers have begun investigating the self-fulfilling prophecy effects of teacher expectations on a variety of psycho-social outcomes in addition to the effects on academic achievement. Second, researchers have started to realize that some groups of students appeared to be more vulnerable or susceptible to teacher expectations. The current study aimed to investigate whether students' gender and minority background were moderators of teacher expectation effects for both academic outcomes and self-concept and subjective task value in the mathematics domain. The study is based on a sample of 1663 students (Grades 6 and 7) in 42 classes from three intermediate schools in New Zealand. Multilevel modeling was applied using MLwiN software. First, after controlling for students' beginning-of-year mathematics achievement, teacher expectations were higher for Asian and lower for Maori, compared with New Zealand European students. Expectations within the domain of mathematics, however, were higher for girls than for boys. Second, teachers' beginning-year expectations were predictive of achievement and self-concept of students at end-of-year, after controlling for beginning-of-year achievement and self-concept. Teachers' expectations were, however, not predictive of end-of-year intrinsic and utility value. Third, we did not find evidence for moderation effects of students' gender and minority background. These findings imply that despite the roughly similar magnitude of teacher expectation effects for various student groups, teacher expectations may contribute to gaps in students' achievement and self-concept because of differential expectations at the beginning of the year.

Whether teachers maintain their expectation bias for students over time is crucial for understanding self-fulfilling prophecy effects. However, the stability of teacher expectation bias has been largely ignored in the literature. We examined the stability of teacher expectation bias across a sample of teachers and the change trajectories of teacher expectation bias across high-, medium-, and low-expectation teacher groups across all teachers and in the curriculum areas of mathematics, Chinese, and English. Our analyses were based on two-year longitudinal data with four time points from 567 Chinese senior high school students and their 50 teachers. The results showed that across all teachers, teacher expectation bias at the individual student level was dynamic over time. That is, teachers seemed to adjust their initial expectation bias in the first few months but then maintained the adjusted expectation bias afterwards. However, when students moved from Grade 11 to Grade 12 (the last year of high school), teachers seemed to change their expectation bias again. The evidence from HLM analyses further supported these results. That is, all the high- and low-expectation teachers alleviated their initial expectation bias significantly in the first six months and then adhered to their adjusted expectation bias. However, when students moved to the last year of high school, some high- and low-expectation teachers' expectation biases were volatile again. Nevertheless, most high- and low-expectation teachers (except for Chinese low-expectation teachers) tended to either over-estimate or under-estimate their students across two school years. Further, compared to Chinese and mathematics teachers, English teachers' biases seemed to be even more stable. Our findings suggested that some teachers consistently over- or under-estimated their students over an extended time period and this could have implications for student outcomes.

The small-scale study reported here sought to ascertain the experiences of talented undergraduate students across four faculties within one university in New Zealand. Thirty-eight undergraduate participants from the four faculties were identified by 16 staff participants based on criteria used by the academic staff in their respective faculty, department, or school. Staff and students participated in separate focus groups so that their perceptions of talented students could be gained. Participant understandings of current identification methods and provision options for talented undergraduate students within the university environment were also sought. Talented undergraduate students identified existing practices that had enhanced, or in some instances had proved detrimental to, their learning. Students also shared ideas that they believed could be implemented to further enhance their experiences and learning. The implications of these findings are discussed with the intent of further enriching the future experiences of talented undergraduate students in the tertiary environment.

Boys continue to demonstrate lower average achievement in reading than girls. The influence of teacher gender has been explored among the factors explaining this scenario but with mixed results. Further, although teacher expectations have affected student academic outcomes, and student gender-related stereotypical notions have shaped such expectations, the role of teacher gender within this scenario has been neglected. The current study was conducted with a sample of elementary schools, in New Zealand (a national setting where essentialist gender attitudes have existed and where policies to implement scholastic gender equity have been critiqued as unsuccessful). The influence of teacher gender and of a teacher-student gender match and mismatch on teacher's expectations of their elementary student reading achievement, was tested via hierarchical linear modeling. Male teachers' expectations were found to be lower for students of both genders in reading and negative implications for male teachers and their students' reading achievement were revealed.

Previous studies have indicated that, although some teachers have substantial expectation effects on student outcomes, the effects for most teachers are only small. Furthermore, teacher expectations are associated with key pedagogical differences related to teacher beliefs about providing instruction and support for learning. The aim of this study was to explore (a) teacher-level differences in the level and differentiation of expectations, (b) associations between teacher differences in expectations and teacher background and beliefs, and (c) relationships with subsequent student performance. Secondary analyses were performed on data for 42 teachers and their students in New Zealand. The results were supportive of the notion that some teachers were differentiating more between students in their expectations than others. Teachers who differentiated more perceived students generally as more competent, but felt less related to the school team, and perceived more classroom stress. Differentiation in expectations was negatively related to end-of-year mathematics scores.

This study was designed to investigate the bases of teacher expectations in higher education. The first author interviewed 20 university teachers from an English-as-a-foreign-language course, exploring their expectations for the first-year undergraduates in their classes. The grounded theory method was adopted to analyse the data that had been collected. The results showed that for this sample of 20 teachers, student characteristics were important contributing factors to their expectations in the teachers' university settings. The factors the teachers considered important included students' (a) prior academic achievement, (b) motivation, (c) study skills, and (d) academic discipline. Also, teacher characteristics were found to be another major source of these university teachers' expectations, including teachers' (a) past teaching and learning experience and (b) teaching self-efficacy. The findings suggested that the bases of teacher expectations in higher education may differ from those at the elementary or secondary school level.

This study was designed to investigate teacher expectation effects for intact student groups (rather than individuals) in tertiary settings, which have been little studied in the literature. The participants were 50 teachers and their 4617 first-year undergraduate students learning English as a foreign language at two universities in China. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was employed for data analysis and the major findings were: (1) class-level teacher expectations had significant effects on student year-end academic achievement; (2) teachers who held high (or low) expectations for all students in one class, held high (or low) expectations for all their classes and (3) teacher-level expectancies had significant effects on student academic achievement after one school year. This study provided evidence that the contextual factors of tertiary education and curriculum areas may contribute to salient teacher expectation effects. Furthermore, the findings add weight to the argument that teacher expectation effects are a function of teacher beliefs rather than student factors.

This qualitative study explored the beliefs of students, parents and teachers on the purposes of schooling in order to provide a context for understanding beliefs and attitudes to school learning and achievement. Focus groups were conducted with Year 9 and 10 students (aged 13-15 years) and parents and teachers in three secondary schools in different socio-economic areas in an urban district. Four categories were identified in relation to beliefs about the purposes of schooling: (1) to learn and gain self-knowledge; (2) to develop life and social skills; (3) to optimize life chances and quality of life; (4) to enable future employment and economic wellbeing. Comparisons revealed that students, parents and teachers all believed in the learning purpose of schooling, but did not all endorse an economic purpose. Students had the broadest views on school purposes. The greatest alignment between views was found for students and parents. The greatest difference between groups was found for students and teachers from high socio-economic area schools. Findings were considered in relation to national curriculum aims and external pressures from globalization. Overall, findings are conducive to a lifelong learning approach, pointing to belief in the intrinsic value of school learning independent of any economic function it may serve.

This research investigates who students, parents and teachers believe is responsible for student learning. Thirteen focus groups were conducted with Year 9 and 10 students, and parents and teachers from three diverse New Zealand secondary schools. Differences were found with respect to whom the three stakeholders thought were responsible for school success, with students looking more to themselves and their own effort whilst teachers and parents placing more importance on the student teacher relationship. Parent responsibility was seen as less important by all groups. However, when it came to responsibility for failure all three stakeholders tended to point the finger away from themselves.

Background: Teacher expectations have been a fruitful area of psychological research for 40 years. Researchers have concentrated on expectations at the individual level (i.e. expectations for individual students), rather than at the class level. Studies of class level expectations have begun to identify specific teacher factors that make a difference for students. Aims: This study aimed to compare how teachers with very high (or very low) expectations for all their students would rate their students' personal attributes. Teacher ratings of attributes in relation to achievement was also of interest. Sample: Participants were six high expectation (HiEx) teachers and three low expectation (LoEx) teachers and their 220 students. Methods: Participants were asked to rate their students on characteristics related to attitudes to schoolwork, relationships with others, and home support for school. Results: Contrasting patterns were found for HiEx and LoEx teachers. For HiEx teachers correlations between expectations and all student factors were significant and positive while for LoEx teachers the correlations that were significant were negative. Correlations between student achievement and all student factors were also positive and significant for HiEx teachers while for LoEx teachers only one positive correlation was found. Conclusions: This study adds weight to the argument that class level expectations are important for student learning. Teacher moderators appear to relate to differing teacher beliefs and attributes (mediators) and hence may lead to variance in the instructional and socio-emotional climate of the classroom.

For 40 years, researchers have been exploring the teacher-expectation phenomenon. Few have examined the possibility that teacher expectations may be class centered rather than individually centered. The current study aimed to track the self-perception outcomes of students (N = 256) whose teachers had high or low class-level expectations. Students completed the Reading, Mathematics, Physical Abilities, and Peer Relations subscales of the Self Description Questionnaire-1 (SDQ-1; Marsh, 1990) at the beginning and end of 1 year. A subscale related to student perception of how the teacher viewed their abilities was added. At the beginning of the year, there were no statistically significant differences between the expectation groups in any of the academic or teacher opinion scales. By the end of the year, statistically significant differences were found in academic and teacher opinion areas due mainly to a decline in the self-perceptions of students with low-expectation teachers. Implications for teacher practice are discussed. (Contains 7 tables.)

Over the past 50 years, research has shown that teacher expectations can influence student outcomes. Many studies have examined within-year effects. There is, however, a paucity of research that has investigated the stability of teachers' expectations across a single year, and there are no studies that have examined stability beyond 1 year. The current study examined the stability of 94 teachers' expectations within 3 separate years and across 3 years in mathematics and reading. In both subject areas, teachers' expectations remained relatively stable from beginning to end-of-year for each separate year and also across 3 years. Additionally, teachers who under- or overestimated their students by more than half a standard deviation continued to do so across all periods in the study. This was despite the teachers having different students each year. The study suggests that teachers view students' capabilities similarly despite having different student cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the New Zealand context, the indigenous Māori group achieve below their Pākehā (European) peers in most academic subjects. The gap begins early in elementary school and is evident throughout schooling. Historically, this has been of concern to researchers, educators, and policy makers because Māori are disadvantaged socially and economically. Teacher expectations are known to contribute to student achievement and, similarly, some student beliefs have been associated with achievement. The current study explored student beliefs and teacher expectations in relation to Māori ( n  = 127) and Pākehā ( n  = 523) middle school students, aged 10–14 years. Teachers were more likely to underestimate Māori and overestimate Pākehā students although this difference disappeared when school socioeconomic status was controlled. Māori students more strongly endorsed performance goals than Pākehā. Greater achievement gains over one year were found in schools in high socioeconomic areas. For Māori students, beginning-of-year achievement, school socioeconomic status, holding a performance orientation, and having low levels of peer support predicted their gains whereas for Pākehā students, only prior achievement, school socioeconomic status and being male were associated with higher end-of-year achievement. The findings are discussed in relation to the implications for Māori and Pākehā students and their schooling. The inclusion of a culturally-based intervention which focuses on improving student–teacher relationships, raising teacher efficacy for teaching Māori, and including culturally appropriate teaching methods is recommended, particularly for teachers teaching in low socioeconomic schools. Such interventions may help to increase Māori achievement and decrease the ethnic achievement gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some recent studies, researchers have measured teacher implicit bias and some have shown that teacher bias predicts student academic outcomes. Currently, however, how bias is portrayed to individual students is largely unknown. In this exploratory qualitative study, observations totalling 4 h per participant were undertaken with ten secondary, six intermediate, and four primary teachers in New Zealand. We utilised a thematic analysis approach to identify three themes: "differential nonverbal behaviours", "differential academic interactions" and "differential reactions under the same conditions" that captured teachers' classroom interactions. Our findings suggested that teachers' differential behaviours were mediating teacher bias. This was because teacher bias was recorded in every classroom; however, teachers displayed biased behaviours to varying degrees. Bias was displayed through various nonverbal and academic interactions, and some teachers portrayed their bias by treating some students differently when the situation for all students was the same. • Teacher bias was observed in every classroom. • Teachers displayed bias through nonverbal and academic interactions. • Some students were treated differently when the situation for all was the same. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' implicit biases about ethnic differences in student achievement and teachers' mindsets have been associated with significant differences in their students' achievement. In two studies (N = 313; N = 57) with preservice teachers undertaking a three-year teacher education programme aimed at promoting social justice, we found that third-year students showed significantly less implicit ethnic achievement bias and reduced fixed mindsets compared to the first-year preservice teachers. Students from the ethnic minority were found to have the least bias, but still associated student achievement more with the ethnic majority group. It is concluded that more is needed to reduce implicit biases and develop a growth mindset among our preservice teachers. • Study 1, 3rd year students demonstrated lower implicit bias than 1st year students. • Study 2, students' implicit bias decreased from their 1st to 3rd year of candidacy. • In both studies, fixed mindset was positively associated with implicit bias. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]