Teacher expectations and student self-perceptions: Exploring relationships

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. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 43: 537–552, 2006.