Here I sit, making men in my own image: how learning disorder labels affect teacher student’s expectancies

Abstract

Teacher’s evaluation of students is sometimes negatively affected by diagnostic labels. We explored such negative effects caused by the labels “dyscalculia”, “dyslexia”, and “ADHD” in teacher students. In Experiment 1, we varied the presence of the dyscalculia and dyslexia label in vignettes between participants. The dyslexia but not the dyscalculia label had a negative effect on participant’s academic expectations. In our preregistered Experiment 2, the presence of the ADHD label in vignettes was manipulated within participants. To understand the cognitive mechanisms driving label effects, we explored participants’ attributions regarding the students’ problems. Furthermore, a short dissonance-based intervention for counteracting negative label effects was implemented. Unexpectedly, we found both negative and positive label effects. The label led to more positive performance expectations and to more negative ratings of problem stability and problem control. The dissonance-based intervention led to more positive evaluations regardless of whether the ADHD label was mentioned or not. Overall, our findings suggest that learning-disorder labels affect teachers’ expectations in different ways.