The stability and trajectories of teacher expectations: Student achievement level as a moderator

Using three time points of teacher expectation data, this study aimed to examine the stability and trajectories of teacher expectations within a school year in the Chinese junior high school context. The participants were 48 Chinese, mathematics, and English teachers and their 1199 students from 10 junior high schools. The issue of the stability of teacher expectations was explored at individual-student level and student-group level, respectively. Spearman's rank order correlation analysis showed that the stability of individual-student-level teacher expectations varied across different classrooms, ranging from very flexible to very stable. Piece-wise hierarchical linear models indicated that the trajectories of teacher expectations across a school year were different for different-achieving student groups. Students in the high-achieving group were systematically overestimated, and the extent of overestimation increased over a school year for the Chinese and mathematics subjects, whereas students in the low-achieving group were systematically underestimated across the school year. The results suggested that teachers might enhance, or even exacerbate the existing achievement differences between students by expecting more from the high achievers and expecting unjustifiably less from the low achievers.