Teachers' expectations and their significance for pupils' development

"You don't have to be able to do it. Your teacher just has to think that you can!" Is there really anything to this claim?

Socio-psychological research has dealt extensively with the phenomenon of the self-fulfilling prophecy. This consists of an event occurring because it is expected to occur. When, at the end of the 1960s, a groundbreaking study by Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) showed that at least some pupils developed more favorably in terms of intelligence because their teachers had expected it, there was initially great skepticism among experts. The methodological criticisms of the study seemed too serious.

In the years and decades that followed, however, various studies brought certainty: on average, teachers' judgments and expectations regarding a student's performance actually have the effect of a self-fulfilling prophecy (cf. e.g. Wang et al., 2018). This effect is mainly explained by the fact that some teachers provide students whom they trust a lot with more demanding learning material, give them more challenging tasks, provide more attention and support and show more emotional warmth than students whom they trust less (e.g. Rosenthal, 1994). Most of these teachers do not consciously apply this practice; there are also teachers who are less or differently guided by their expectations. Nevertheless, expectation effects on school competencies can be found time and again, including in current studies.

Although the effects on ability development are relatively small, it is interesting and highly relevant to ask whether other important areas such as motivation or subjective well-being are also affected in addition to ability development. A recent study (Bergold & Steinmayr, 2023) with over 1000 ninth graders from comprehensive schools, secondary schools and lower secondary schools as well as their math and German teachers has now examined the effects of teacher assessments on the development of young people in math performance, reading performance, ability self-concepts, intrinsic motivation, educational goals and subjective well-being over a period of one year. All variables were considered together in one model in order to be able to test whether all characteristics are simultaneously and directly affected by expectations, or whether there are possibly expectation effects only on performance, which only indirectly affect the other characteristics. In this case, effects on the downstream characteristics would probably become noticeable in practice with a delay and to a lesser extent, i.e. the significance of teacher expectations would be rather limited.

In the aforementioned study, however, independent expectation effects were found in almost all areas considered. If pupils were overestimated, they subsequently developed more strongly in their subject, but also gained a more positive view of their academic abilities independently of this, aspired to a higher school-leaving qualification and were more likely to study, and in some cases also developed greater life satisfaction. If they were underestimated, the development in these areas was less favorable. The independence of the effects documents that teachers' expectations have a direct effect on each of the characteristics examined. Expectation effects on motivation, for example, are therefore not (only) indirectly caused by expectation effects on performance, but also have a direct effect on motivation, i.e. they add up.

With its results, this study not only suggests that an overestimation could be more pedagogically favorable than a correct assessment and even more so than an underestimation. Above all, it also shows that teachers' expectations have an impact on pupils' development according to the scattergun principle. Even if the effects of expectations on individual areas may be relatively small, a large number of small effects add up to a considerable overall effect. This makes it clear that teachers' judgments and expectations have a wide range of effects and that the influence of teachers on the development of their students is considerable.

• Bergold, S. & Steinmayr, R. (2023). Teacher judgments predict developments in adolescents' school performance, motivation, and life satisfaction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 115(4), 642-664.  https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000786 (opens in a new tab)
• Rosenthal, R. (1994). Interpersonal expectancy effects: A 30-year perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3(6), 176-179.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.ep10770698 (opens in a new tab)
• Rosenthal, R. & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils' intellectual development. Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
• Wang, S., Rubie-Davies, C. M. & Meissel, K. (2018). A systematic review of the teacher expectation literature over the past 30 years. Educational Research and Evaluation, 24(3-5), 124-179.  https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2018.1548798 (opens in a new tab)

If you are interested in further literature, please contact Dr. Sebastian Bergold sebastian.bergoldbonnde.

Below you will find an interview with Werner Meyer-Deters on the questions of why a school protection concept against (sexualized) violence is so important and what makes a good protection concept.

What does it mean for an institution to have a protection concept against sexualized violence?
Meyer-Deters: For the institution, it means above all that it can take care of child protection and do better justice to it. For the employees of the institution, it means that there is certainty of action, i.e. basically everyone knows what they can do for prevention on the one hand and what they can do if there are indications of violence against children on the other, in order to initiate the necessary measures that are ultimately effective for child protection.

In other words, it's a lot about having the confidence to act, it's about having orientation?
Meyer-Deters: That's right. It's about having the confidence to act, but not only with regard to the situation when there are indications of violence against children, but above all in guaranteeing children's rights, which aim to strengthen children, empower them and encourage them to seek help when they need it. It is also about the school staff being seen as a person of trust in the eyes of the children, as someone who takes care of their small and big worries and who they know will help them when they are in need.

What makes a good protection concept?
Meyer-Deters: I would put the focus of a good protection concept on taking the child's perspective and thinking from the child's point of view. The institution should be aware that the aim is to strengthen and empower the children and not just be guided by keeping its own store clean. A good safeguarding concept also means that, on the one hand, you know what to do if children are in distress due to third parties, i.e. if they are in distress outside the school, but on the other hand, you also focus openly and honestly on the fact that the school itself can become a crime scene and school staff can behave incorrectly and perhaps even deliberately harm children - fortunately, this is the minority of cases.

You say that this is the minority of cases. What is the majority of cases?
Meyer-Deters: Most boundary violations against children happen because their needs and rights are not taken seriously enough, because they are belittled - usually not intentionally - through words, because promises made are not kept, because teachers perhaps do not have enough attention and patience to do justice to the specific educational and support mandate.

How do schools benefit from having a safeguarding policy?
Meyer-Deters: First and foremost, they benefit from a safeguarding policy because it makes teachers even more aware that all children have a right to protection, support, participation and complaints. Secondly, a protection concept reminds children that they should have the opportunity to articulate their needs in every specific situation and that these needs should be taken seriously. This also means that they can decide whether they want to get involved in a situation or not. And thirdly, children should also have the right to decide whether they want to leave a situation or not. The last two points often pose a dilemma for teachers. It is not always easy for them to know how to deal with this when it comes to making children do something or forbidding them to do something. Sometimes you have to overstep the boundaries of their autonomy. What do I do when children are resistant? What do I do when they are reluctant and lack motivation? How far can I actually go in this dilemma situation, where I have to ask them to do something that they don't want without leaving the "green zone"? So, in short, every protection concept should also address these dilemma situations when you have to cross children's autonomy boundaries or even intimacy boundaries for health or care reasons. In this way, a safeguarding concept strengthens the confidence of teachers to act and provides security in dealing with these boundaries.

How can a school design the content of a safeguarding concept in such a way that it becomes tangible and visible for the entire school community in everyday life?
Meyer-Deters: I believe that it is essential to develop a safeguarding concept together with parents and pupils or their representatives. This starts with a structural and risk analysis and continues with an analysis of potential with a view to protective factors in the school. For example, you should go on tours with children and identify the places that make them feel uncomfortable or at ease. You should work out with the children not only what their rights are, but also what good reasons for complaint are. Teachers should talk to the children and young people about what adults should never do to them and what is punishable. However, they should also discuss with them the types of behavior that are not punishable, but which belong in the area of black pedagogy, because children feel hurt and insulted, belittled, put at the back or discriminated against. All of these are also good grounds for complaint that can be worked out in a participatory way with children and young people. And that is the process that makes the children grow up and which I would imagine is part of the practiced protection concept, which is not understood as a concept, but as a process, as a way of empowering children in day-to-day educational work.

What can you recommend to a school that is now setting out to develop a safeguarding concept?
Meyer-Deters: I would always wish the school external support and guidance, because you automatically have blinkers on. I would definitely recommend that schools think about their basic attitude towards children and young people and the inalienable rights of children and set them down in a preamble, and secondly, to make the protection mandate a mandatory task for all teachers at the beginning in a way that everyone can understand. So, I would say that, on the one hand, it is about a process in the development of a protection concept, where more knowledge is generated and, in the end, more skills emerge in dealing with various challenges, especially when children are in need. On the other hand, an attitude should be developed that is sensitive to the perspective of children. What qualities do we as adults use to support children and young people? Which experiences do children and young people want to share with us adults and which do they not want to share so that they can trust us when they are in need? It is crucial to always look at the various aspects from the children's perspective in order to place the children at the center of our attention and our actions.

Werner Meyer-Deters is a qualified social pedagogue, violence counsellor/violence pedagogue and training officer in the area of prevention of sexualized violence for the Archdiocese of Paderborn and other dioceses. He is a board member of the German Society for Prevention and Intervention of Child Abuse and Neglect (DGfPI).

In his numerous professional activities, he has dealt with the conditions under which sexualized violence occurs, as well as the effects on the victims and their environment. His professional focus is on working with assaulted people as well as developing concepts and supporting institutions and their employees on the subject of sexualized violence.

The abbreviation "LRS" stands for reading and spelling difficulties. There is a legal basis for schools in NRW for dealing with LRS, the so-called  LRS decree (opens in a new tab). According to this, LRS is present when pupils have massive and persistent difficulties in learning reading and writing skills and need additional support. The LRS decree states that children require special support if

• they still lack the necessary prerequisites for learning to read and write in grades 1 and 2 and do not achieve the basic objectives of reading and spelling lessons
• in grades 3 to 6, their performance in reading or spelling does not meet the requirements for a period of at least three months,
• in grades 7 to 10, in individual cases, their particular difficulties in reading or spelling have not yet been remedied.

The decree also provides the basis for schools to provide individual compensation for disadvantages for these children.

The professional pedagogical assessment of the German teacher is sufficient and decisive for the determination of reading and spelling difficulties. After subsequent consultation with the class conference and the school management, a decision is made on additional individual support and the design of compensation for disadvantages.

The term "reading and spelling difficulties" is therefore not linked to a standardized or clinical diagnosis. This means that an external diagnosis by a registered child and adolescent psychotherapist or psychiatrist is not required for school action.

The term reading and spelling disorder, on the other hand, is a clinical diagnosis and is only used once defined criteria have been met in a standardized diagnosis. For this purpose, standardized tests to check reading and spelling skills as well as an intelligence test are carried out by a child and adolescent psychiatrist or psychotherapist. If school-based support is not sufficient, parents can apply to the youth welfare office (specialist service for integration assistance) for the costs of extracurricular learning therapy to be covered and approved in individual cases under certain conditions.

Pupils with reading and writing difficulties need additional support. The school must provide targeted support for these children. Above all, it is important to maintain and develop the child's motivation to read and write. In addition, exercises should be tailored to the child's abilities, i.e. to the stage in the reading and writing process that the child is currently at. Individually adapted compensation for disadvantages also provides relief and is often useful. Extracurricular support may be considered if support at school is not sufficient.

In some cases it is difficult to decide: How can I, as a teacher, detect Dyslexia myself? How can I help the child? Does the child need additional support? Should the parents obtain a clinical diagnosis? Who can provide good support for the child? What compensation for disadvantages should I grant?

We will be happy to advise you on these questions.

We can also carry out a support diagnosis (using writing samples and reading and spelling tests) and then advise you on how you can support the child. We will recommend suitable support materials for the child as well as correction and practice strategies. If possible, we involve both the teacher and the parents in the considerations and agreements and take into account how the child can regain more motivation.

The preparation of expert reports or the issuing of psychiatric diagnoses is not part of our remit and is not necessary for dealing with reading and spelling difficulties at school.

Dyscalculia (also known as dyscalculia or dyscalculia) is characterized by serious and persistent difficulties in learning arithmetic from the outset, which cannot be remedied by the usual support in subject lessons or tutoring. The reasons for dyscalculia do not lie in intelligence limitations, lack of motivation or inadequate schooling or support, but in a probably hereditary lack of internalization of precursor skills that normally develop in toddler and kindergarten age and are essential for learning arithmetic (e.g. the ability to relate numbers and quantities to each other).

Due to the deficits in the precursor skills, the affected children often exhibit typical abnormalities in arithmetic acquisition. For example, they mix up numbers and arithmetic operations, cannot decompose numbers and quantities or assign them to one another and have difficulties even with simple mental arithmetic tasks. Calculation strategies do not develop further, so that the affected children continue to use counting strategies, often with the help of their fingers, even after a long time. The capacity of the numerical working memory is also limited and is quickly exceeded, so that especially transitions of tens and tasks that require several partial steps present the children with problems.

The difficulties persist despite tutoring or even class repetition, which is why many of the affected children, parents - or even teachers - become continually frustrated. Many children develop a negative self-concept of ability, self-esteem problems, performance anxiety or even refusal behavior, which can spread to other subjects or school in general over time, which is why regular communication about the pupil among the teaching staff is important.

Various agencies can support affected children and their parents. For individually tailored learning support, the school is the primary place of support. Primary school teachers can also contact the Math Center (MathZe (opens in a new tab)) if they have any questions about teaching. If dyscalculia is present, the school can find individual solutions to compensate for existing disadvantages (a decree with compensation for disadvantages does not yet exist). If specific school support is not sufficient, learning therapy can also help. Diagnostic clarification of suspected dyscalculia is carried out in socio-pediatric centers, medical care centers or child and adolescent psychiatric or psychotherapeutic practices.

Teachers can refer affected children and their parents to the counseling services offered by the school psychology department. As part of a school psychology consultation, we can, for example, provide information about the disorder and diagnostic options, advise on motivational difficulties or anxieties and, together with all those involved (parents, child, teachers), consider which school and extracurricular support measures could be helpful. Appropriate performance diagnostics can also be carried out to determine suitable support measures . In addition, the school psychology department advises teachers on how to deal with emotional and motivational difficulties that arise in connection with arithmetic difficulties in the classroom. The services offered by the school psychology department also include the possibility of providing advice on compensating for disadvantages and supporting schools in finding individual solutions. The preparation of expert reports or the issuing of psychiatric diagnoses is not part of our tasks and is not necessary for dealing with dyscalculia in schools.