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Effects of labels and student performance data on the formulation and maintenance of teacher expectations
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the influence the labels Learning Disabled, Behavior Disordered, and At Risk had on the academic, study skill, behavioral, and instructional expectations teachers formulated for students as well as the role successful student performance information played in mediating any label-influence found to exist. Teachers' expectations were measured in this study through an instrument which presented a two-part vignette requesting teachers to assume a student was to enter an existing "average" class. The first part of the vignette described the student in general terms and assigned one of the label conditions; the second part of the vignette provided more detailed student information which reflected successful past performance yet continued to assign the initial label or non-label condition. After reading each student description, participants indicated their expectations by responding to performance statements on a 7-point Likert-type scale. Information from 522 middle-level special and regular educators was analyzed using multi-variate analysis of variance and follow-up procedures. Findings from this study support the contention that teachers are negatively influenced by labels as they formulate and maintain expectations for students. The results of this study indicate that the labels Learning Disabled, Behaviorally Disordered, and At Risk have significantly different, yet negative, impact on teachers' academic, study skill, behavioral, and instructional expectations for students. Successful student performance information exercised a significantly positive influence on the expectations teachers reported initially; however, a negative label influence continued to hold. Finally, special education and academic regular education endorsements significantly influenced the expectations teachers formulated for students, with special education teachers holding higher expectations for all students across all expectation areas with the exception of study skill expectations for non-labeled students. Based on data from this study, however, the endorsement area of the teacher does not interact with the label of the student to influence expectation levels for the student.
Subject Area
Special education|Curricula|Teaching
Recommended Citation
Cirone, Sharon O'Neill, "Effects of labels and student performance data on the formulation and maintenance of teacher expectations" (1990). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9121915.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9121915