Great Expectations

For almost a century, scientists have documented the power of teacher expectations.

Remember the enlightenment that came after first reading about the studies where teachers were led to expect better performance from their students, and how well those students did? A recent Wall Street Journal article noted that "479 studies have found that teachers' expectations affect how students do." Wow!

This "power of expectation" must be pretty well understood by now, right?

Wrong.

Another recent study is worth mentioning:

12 experimenters were each given five rats. Six experimenters were told their rats were of a genetic strain that were geniuses; the other six were told their rats were stupid. After five days of training the rats to run a maze, guess what the results showed?

Right. The researchers with the "genius" rats found their rats learned the maze faster from the first day of tests! And you can guess the bottom line: all the rats came from the same strain. The dramatic differences came only from the experimenters expectations. In the case of rats, those differences translated to running the maze 65% faster.

How about with students? Studies indicate that high expectations can raise student performance by about 30%.

It works with coaches and team performance too!

It works in the world of business and work too!

In his book, The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor, a social psychologist, proposed Theory X and Y. Each theory starts with a set of assumptions about people.

Theory X assumes the average worker:

• dislikes work and attempts to avoid it
• prefers to be directed
• avoids responsibility
• wants security above all else

Theory Y assumes the average worker:

• finds work fulfilling and enjoyable
• is self directed to meet objectives if he/she is committed to them
• seeks and accepts responsibility
• wants to learn, grow and develop

Knowing what we know about the power of expectations, guess which manager gets the best results from his employees?

The assumptions managers make about their employees influence what they expect and how they treat them. For example, if we assume people are lazy, irresponsible and unmotivated, we will assign tasks on a piece-meal basis and micromanage. In addition, we will frequently criticize their work and tell them they are lazy and irresponsible. On the other hand, if we assume people are smart, motivated, responsible, and eager to learn, we'll provide challenging assignments, freedom to do their jobs, and frequent coaching. Also, we'll periodically praise their accomplishments and affirm our belief in their talents and abilities.

Employees tend to respond positively to a manager's high expectations and confidence in their abilities. If we expect people to be "winners" and treat them like "winners," pretty soon they start to act like "winners." As people achieve assigned goals they are given more responsibilities for growth and development. The opposite is also true. If a manager's expectations are low, employee productivity is likely to be poor. More often than not people do what they think they are expected to do.

The implications for students and teachers are obvious.

Dr. Glenn Latham, former professor at Utah State University, was recognized as an expert in the behavioral sciences, particularly in family and school settings. He did some interesting research on how teacher behavior influences student behavior. In some classrooms he found students were hardworking, cheerful and well mannered; in others students were lazy, sullen and poorly mannered. What's the difference? Dr. Latham states, "There are many contributing factors, but I believe the major one may be the ratio of positive to negative interactions between the teacher and student. The higher 'P/N Ratio' the better the atmosphere in the classroom, the better students behave, and the more they learn."

In some classrooms the average P/N ratio was one to four. In other words, teachers typically interacted with students in negative ways four times as often as they interacted in positive ways. Dr. Latham worked with teachers to increase their "P/N Ratio." He found that classrooms where the P/N ratio was closer to 10/1 had a marked effect on the emotional tone of the classroom and the students had increased academic success and fewer behavior problems. When teachers were coached to change their behavior they had better student performance!

There have been many programs designed to increase this P/N ratio. One of the better known is the Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement (or TESA) program which trains teachers to interact with students on a more equitable basis. This approach is based on expectation theory, which says that teachers make inferences about a student's behavior or ability based on what a teacher knows about a student. This can have a potentially damaging effect on students, and is sometimes referred to as a "self-fulfilling prophecy" - what you expect from a student is what the student gives you.

Some researchers believe that simply reminding teachers of this expectation can have a positive influence on both academic achievement and student behavior.

The Advantage Press has designed discipline packets that offer a positive spin on student discipline problems. These packets offer logical consequences for student misbehavior--students work on packets that address the school rule they violated. They read professionally prepared materials and answer questions to help them modify their actions. The Packets are based upon a positive "can do" theme and are available for students in grades 2-12. Find out more about our Discipline Learning Packets at this website.