You can’t blame people for having low expectations for some students (did you do a double take when you read that? I hope it got you a little fired up).
There is so much research on the importance of high teacher expectations for students, and as leaders (or colleagues), we sometimes can’t believe someone would dare harbor the belief that some students just can’t achieve at the same level as other students.
After all, we’ve all sat through the meetings and professional development sessions, and we’ve all shared our “why,” and we’re all here for kids. How could we possibly be here if we don't believe all students can succeed?
Let’s unpack this a little bit.
Beliefs are shaped by past experiences. The more similar experiences you have, the stronger the belief.
If teachers have had significant past experience where certain types or groups of students have consistently struggled in school, why would we wonder about their lowered expectations? Teachers are doing the best they know how and their beliefs are shaped by the results of their actions.
Unfortunately, the reason why high expectations are so important is because beliefs lead to actions. In this case, teachers have no past experience to deter them from continuing to act with lower expectations, leading to lower achievement (their experience), which further reinforces their beliefs in a continuous cycle of non-improvement.
Let me give you an example. You have been a teacher for 10 years. Over the course of that time, you've had quite a bit of success with your students. However, over the last 5 years, you've experienced an increase in multilingual learners in your class. These students have struggled more than others, even though you've provided the same high-quality instruction as before. You try some new things from a few trainings you've had, but your second language learners have continued to struggle. Your actions (teaching practices, relationship building, etc.) have lead to a set of experiences (lower than hoped for results from your second language students). Those experience lead to a set of beliefs where you might have lower expectations for future multilingual students.
Understanding this process helps us facilitate change. You don’t change beliefs. However, you can change the experiences that shape beliefs. Don’t waste time debating with teachers about having higher expectations. use your skills as an instructional leader (such as coaching and feedback) to help those teachers have experiences where those student groups succeed.
Don’t be surprised if it takes a while. Those previous beliefs were shaped by years of past experience. It will most likely take more than one set of professional development to change them!
To really understand why beliefs are hard to change, consider work you have done to change a practice or habit in your own life. Sometimes it's easy to recognize beliefs that are preventing change in others, but we are less able to see them in ourselves.
How have you seen this cycle play out in your own work or your work with others?
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