Grouping and High Teacher Expectations PLD Day 29.1.19

Grouping and High Teacher Expectations  PLD Day 29.1.19

Presenter: Christine Rubie-Davies, The University of Auckland


The presentation from Christine Rubie-Davies today explained the consequences of teachers having high and low expectations of their students. Teaching practices were outlined, that could improve the self-esteem of students by steering away from purely ability groups in class. She explained that a student's self-belief is affected by teacher expectations. What the teacher values and how a teacher interacts through non-verbal and verbal signals all send a message to students about their ability.

Robert Merton was one of the first researchers to investigate the topic of self fulfilling prophecy. Bob Rosenthal was, however first to apply this concept to education (Pygmalion in the Classroom). Rats and psychologists versus teacher and children interactions, and beliefs were investigated and a framework was designed by Christine Rubie-Davies to detail how the instructional environment and the socio emotional environment (aka class climate) are influenced by several factors.

Reflective question for teachers

 How do you form expectations? What information do you use to make decisions about students?

We discussed the various ways we gather information about students such as...

• achievement data
• personal narratives and info
• previous support provided, and diagnostic labelling
• previous portfolios, reports or profiles presented

Some NZ research examined the resulting effects of teacher attitudes towards ethnicities and those students' achievement. It indicated that Maori were lower in achievement than other ethnic groups. The teacher's belief about the student's ethnicity appeared to influence the teacher's own expectations.

Reflective activity

Teachers were asked to sort the teacher behaviours into two categories, those of interactions with high achievers and those of interactions with low achievers. Teachers gave more quality time to high achievers than lower achievers. Also more wait /processing time were given to high achievers. High emotional support was given to high achievers whereas low emotional support was given to low achievers. Studies on teachers' attitudes and expectations can be influenced by bias, prejudiced and stereotypical (Babab).

It was noted by the research that, when gathering student voice,  students took note of a teacher's non-verbal language and were quick to detect insincerity, even mixed messages. They could identify the differences in how teachers responded to or treated high and low achievers. They noted that brainy students don’t get told off. 

Consequences of expectations

Two factors that influence student capability are; opportunities to learn and the extent to which mixed ability groups are used.

Lower achievers have less opportunities to learn, and less positive interactions. High achievers have more opportunities to learn,  receive positive emotional interactions, and experience challenging learning opportunities. If a student knows that a teacher likes them they will make a bigger effort. 

The way that achievement data is shared and children are grouped often forms negative self-beliefs. Teachers need to be sensitive to how this is shared as the damage can be big.

Teachers attitudes can change the learning trajectory. It was suggested that teachers video themselves teaching to analyse how they interact with high and low achievers.

 Teachers' expectations can preserve self esteem and make the pace and rate of learning easier as well as level adjustments.

Which of the high expectations are already embedded in my practice?

• Gathering student voice about seating/grouping.
• Learning goals based on assessment info  
• Clear routines 
• Extended explanations
• Flexible groupings
• Positive climate
• Scaffolding
• Use links to prior knowledge 
• Fostering relationships
• Give choices
• Be positive
• Mixed ability groups for maths word problems etc
• Consider each students narrative.
• High expectations for all students

Changes I am considering to my teaching

• Multiple opportunities to learn
• Critical thinking activities for all students
• Check non verbal language
• Check bias and prejudice
• Have flexibility in groupings across subjects and focus on the learning rather than ability
• Frequent feedback based on goals
• Video self for observing expectations and non verbal behaviour
•  Responsibility for learning
• Intrinsically motivated students
• Choice of what reader they have
• Ways of grouping students could involve responses to topics to mix them up, perhaps a theme box e.g. frogs and related tasks on a web
• Home reading cards with colour wheel colours, that contain differentiated instruction for parents e.g.,red books- I can read this by myself, yellow books- I can read this with some help
• Theme box e.g.,  for shared reading higher order tasks
• Mixed groups for some “reading activities”, pairs, task board/tumble with student choice.

Group reflection

Setting up a high expectation classroom