ARE THEY GETTING WHAT THEY EXPECT?

The expectations that students bring to a class are an important element in understanding how they perceive and react to the learning process. Nonetheless, student expectations have been largely ignored in the educational literature. Theoretically two different effects are possible: expectations could shape perception, or they could operate as a conscious baseline from which students react to course activity. This paper examines the expectations that students (N = 340) bring to the "introduction to sociology" course and analyzes how those expectations, as well as their violation, affect general evaluation items. The results show that expectations (as measured on the first day) are above average; that the introductory experience generally results in a positive violation; that students' sex, year in school, and grade point average are associated with different levels of expectancy and expectancy violation; and that both factors affect general evaluation items, depending upon the area of expectancy and the evaluation item being considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]