Teachers' Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform

Alix Spiegel addresses how a teacher's expectations can effect how a student performs. The Harvard professor, Robert Rosenthal did an experiment in 1964 to test this. Spiegel reviews how some teachers were told that certain students did very well on an exam. The teachers were made to believe that these students "were on the verge of an intense intellectual bloom." As a result, teachers spent more time with those students and gave them more approval. So how to we change teachers' expectations? The article suggests that instead of changing how teachers think, we should change their behaviors. Robert Pianta gives a very good example of how a student can become disgruntled and continue to make problems if their teacher expects them to. If the teacher responds positively, then the student will as well. Some teachers tested this out by doing behavioral training and working with a coach to change their behavior in the classroom. This helped the teachers' expectations grow tremendously. I found the article very interesting because as a future teacher I want to make sure I do not develop certain thoughts and behaviors that will affect my students.