| Abstract: | In the present study, teachers read fictitious psychoeducational reports that interpretively were consistent, inconsistent, or absent with respect to a child's diagnostic label. On a perceptual expectation questionnaire, teachers indicated both their perceptions of the child and their confidence in these perceptions, after reading a cumulative folder and again after reading a psychoeducational report. Although the reports differed by just one or two interpretive statements, results revealed that teacher perceptions of child characteristics changed in an adaptive direction for the school performance clusters of general adjustment, academic skill, and learning approach, while report interpretation negatively influenced ratings for intellectual capacity. Further, the type of diagnostic label provided in the cumulative folder was an important variable in determining the perceptual effect of the report's interpretation, since different patterns of teacher perception and their confidence in these perceptions were observed for LD, BD, or EMH labels. |
