Confirmation of a Teacher Expectancy Model: Student Perceptions and Causal Attributions of Teaching Behaviors

Abstract

This study described patterns of observed and student perceived teaching behaviors directed to high and low expectancy students and determined how students attribute causes to the teaching behaviors. Eleven certified elementary classroom teachers and their second and third-grade classes served as subjects for the study. Twenty-seven high expectancy and 33 low expectancy students were identified by having the teachers rate their students in terms of expected levels of performance for the school year. Three types of teacher feedback were recorded by trained observers: a) praise/encouragement; b) skill correction; and c) corrective behavior feedback. Students were also interviewed to see whether their perceptions of the teachers' actions were consistent with the coded dyadic interactions. In addition, interviewers asked the students to describe the causes for the teacher's actions. Each cause was classified into one of four attributional categories: a) personal causes; b) teacher causes; c) environmental causes; and d) complex causes. Major differences between observed and perceived teacher praise and corrective behavior feedback were found for high and low expectancy students. Attributional data also revealed that low expectancy students tended to attribute corrective behavior feedback to personal causes much more so than high expectancy students. High expectancy students, on the other hand, were more inclined to attribute the same behavior to teacher characteristics.