TEACHER’S EXPECTATIONS

Existing research in psychology shows that teacher expectations can influence how much effort students put into their schoolwork, and consequently, their learning outcomes. During the current time period where online learning is likely to have made it harder for students to stay motivated, we hypothesise that conveying teacher expectations to encourage students to engage in their work and improve their performance could be very beneficial, especially for those who may be falling behind academically. Our study aims to shed light, through a randomised control trial, on whether:

(a) expectations of high effort and achievement affect students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes;
(b) they affect student and parental engagement in their child’s education; and
(c) the treatment effect differs according to whether these expectations are conveyed to a student individually, to a pair of students collectively, or to their parent.