A Systematic Review on Teacher’s Expectations and Classroom Behaviors

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to scrutinize how teacher expectations are shaped and reflected in teachers’ classroom behaviors by presenting a holistic picture of teacher expectation literature that has significantly developed since 1968. To achieve this, a systematic review design was utilized in the study, and different academic databases, which were namely EBSCOhost, ERIC, Science Direct, Journal Park Academic, and HEC Theses Centre, were examined. Among 1.227 of the studies conducted, 32 research studies were included in the current review based on a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria after the identification, screening, and eligibility processes. After the content analysis carried out on the included studies, the review extracted certain factors shaping teachers’ expectations of students’ academic achievement, which were grouped as students’ readiness, skills and abilities, teacher- and family-related factors, and school policies. In classes, teachers differentiated their instructional methods according to students’ ability levels, presented more group work opportunities, established more eye-contact, assigned cognitively harder tasks, and expected more quality work from high-expectancy students. Teachers also tended to decrease their interaction time by turning to another student when a low-expectancy student could not answer a question, and to know personal or academic strengths of high-expectancy students more than low-expectancy ones.