Peer and teacher influence are key components in successfully completing school. It is no wonder then, that discrimination and stereotyping from a teacher or fellow classmate may be detrimental to one’s education. Schneider, Gruman and Coutts (2012) outlined the factors that contribute to student academic performance, highlighting teacher expectations and student interactions. Rosenthal and Jacobsen (1968) proved that teacher expectations can influence student academic outcome by simply suggesting certain students have more or less potential than others. This experiment supported the idea that teachers may fall prey to the self-fulfilling prophecy by believing some students have higher IQs and therefore, higher academic potential. Teachers take this information and subconsciously treat these students with more attention, encouragement, challenging material, feedback and opportunity (Rosenthal & Jacobsen, 1968). In return, the students identified as “bloomers” will achieve more and be more successful therefore, confirming the teacher’s expectations. This becomes a major issue however, when expectations are based on unfair stereotypes.
Cephas (2013) reported that African American students often perform poorer in school due to the stereotypes and labels that surround their race. More specifically, African American students were suspended/expelled more often, received less encouragement/positive expectations and were even more likely to be placed in special education classes (Cephas, 2013). Cephas (2013) was even so bold as to say African Americans are set up to fail in the education system. African American students enter the school system with the same excitement and potential as many of their peers, regardless of race (Cephas, 2013). However stereotyping and discrimination, even at a subconscious level, can cause unequal treatment in racial minority education (Cephas, 2013).
Additionally, peer interaction is highly influential on academic performance. The peer role is key in learning to form friendships, work in groups, resolve conflict, etc. (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). Furthermore, Schneider et al. (2012) note the relationship between the social aspect of development and the outcome of academic performance. Difficulties within the social component of education can hinder the academic achievement of students especially in situations of rejection or discrimination (Bullock, 1992; Coolihan, Fantuzzo, Mendez & McDermott, 2000; Schneider et al., 2012; Veronneau & Vitaro, 2007). Stewart et al. (2003) reviewed Jane Elliott’s “blue eyes/brown eyes” exercise in which students of a third grade class were divided according to eye color. These students were taught that one color was superior to the children with the other eye color and eventually, this notion lead students to discriminate against their peers who were different from them (Peters, 1987). A simple comment by the teacher completely changed the behavior and opinions of the students. What happens then when a parent or influential role model makes stereotypical or discriminatory comments? Although the nation may pride itself on how far society has progressed in regards to racism, many stereotypes still exist. These stereotypes have the potential to make their way through classrooms and contaminate the learning environment.
Junn, Grier and Behrens (2001) propose a simple and effective solution: educate students and increase their understanding of prejudice and stereotyping. Their research revealed that by motivating students to become more aware of their schemas and discuss these schemas in a group setting, negative attitudes, stereotypes and prejudices were decreased (Junn et a., 2001). Awareness and understanding helped students realize these often subconscious attitudes that lead to discriminatory behaviors. Perhaps a similar method of enhancing awareness should be implemented in teacher training as well to reduce stereotypical attitudes and prevent the self-fulfilling prophecy from occurring through teacher expectations. Together, interventions to overcome stereotyping and prejudice are key in ensuring the success of students from all backgrounds in the academic environment.
References
Bullock, J. (1992). Children without friends: Who are they and how can teachers help? Childhood Education, 69, 92-96. doi:10.1080/00094056.1992.10520898.
Cephas, J. (2013). Six psychological concepts of why African American males under achieve academically. ProQuest Information and Learning, 74(4). Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/docview/1449320746?accountid=13158.
Coolihan, K., Fantuzzo, J., Mendez, J. & McDermott, P. (2000). Preschool peer interactions and readiness to learn: Relationships between classroom peer play and learning behaviors and conduct. Jounrla of Educational Psychology, 92, 458-465. doi:10.1037/00220663.92.3.458.
Junn, E., Grier, L., & Behrens, D. (2001). Playing “Sherlock Holmes”: Enhancing students’ understanding of prejudice and stereotyping. Teaching of Psychology, 28(2), 121-124. doi:10.1207/S15328023TOP2802_12.
Peters, W. (1987). A class divided: Then and now. New Haven , CT : Yale University Press.
Rosenthal, R. & Jaconbsen, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils’ intellectual development. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., and Coutts, L. M. (Eds.) (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Stewart, T., LaDuka, J., Bracht, C., Sweet, B., & Gamarel, K. (2003). Do the “eyes” have it? A program evaluation of Jane Elliott’s “Blue-Eyes/Brown-Eyes” diversity training exercise. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33(9), 1898-1921. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb02086.
Veronneau, M. & Vitaro, F. (2007). Social experiences with peers and high school graduation: A review of theoretical and empirical research. Educational Psychology, 27, 419-445. doi:10.1080/01443410601104320.
Education is a “textbook” to a life of continuous knowledge and information. Education helps us to understand the world and better ourselves by teaching us about responsibility and working with others for goals and expectations for the future. Students learn a lot about themselves when they enter education and long after we leave (eventually, hopefully, in my case). Values are developed and maturity and decision making takes place. During the pivotal time of school years, social learning and problem solving are important to learn for future endeavors (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012).
It deeply saddens me that all students don’t get the same chance to become successful individuals who then go on to help others. The experiment by Rosenthal and Jacobsen in 1968 was both a bit surprising and yet extremely upsetting to hear, but in reality, most of us know this does go on, sometimes more than we would like to admit. In some ways, I do feel sorry for teachers who really do care about their students, but don’t have enough resources or “manpower” to help every child the way that should. A perfect example is what is happening to me right now. My child is already delayed a bit and while I think he is “almost “ ready for kindergarten, do I send him or wait a year because the school district that I live in is good, but is very large. His kindergarten class will have around 27 students with no student aide or help. How does one teacher help 27 children who are at different levels? At this level, some have had preschool, so they may be more advanced, but what about my son who will need extra help and he is a minority, what happens to him? If his teacher falls into believing the self-fulfilling prophecy that because he is a minority, his teacher feels like he isn’t worth giving her time to then he falls behind even more. When I was reading about Cephas and how it was thought that Cephas thought African Americans students were actually “set up to fail,” that saddened me.
I definitely feel that when people make a comment about how far we have come in eliminating racism and discrimination, these components still exist, especially in smaller communities such as Miss Jane Elliot’s class which experimented with discrimination around 1970. This experiment clearly showed how in two days, friendships were turned upside down because of those who were superior and wore the blue collar versus those who were inferior and were considered “stupid and dumb” (Frontline, 1985). Children emulate what we as adults say and do. If they hear a parent describing a group of people as “stupid, idiots” then the children will remember that comment and either repeat it or start to think that. I do believe that children should be taught at an early age about discrimination and prejudice by giving information and letting them participate in an exercise, maybe not as intense as the one that Mrs. Elliot performed, but similar in the outcome. Exposure is very important as an intervention in lessening prejudice. Maybe having guest speakers from different countries would be helpful. I remember we used to have exchange students from Spain, China, and Mexico who would go to school with us and it was always very interesting. I don’t know if they do that anymore, but it was helpful because I came from a very small farming community where diversity was limited. I think that workshops for teachers on discrimination and prejudice would be helpful and lessen stereotypical thoughts about students because of their differences. Teachers play such a pivotal role in education and can try and guide students to become successful adults who continually strive to be better human beings!
I agree with the President, Barack Obama when he stated in one of his national addresses to students “Every single one of you has something that you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That ‘s the opportunity an education can provide” (Future, 2009). I wanted to close with a couple of quotes which I found interesting as to why education is so IMPORTANT!
“The Beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you” and “Education is not preparation for life: education is life itself.”
Frontline. (1985). A Class Divided. Retrieved online at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/
The future of America depends on you. (2009) Boston.com. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/09/09/an_excerpt__of_president_obamas_speech_to_students.
Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.A. (2005). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Melody,
The CLASS program appears to be an excellent intervention to ensuring students are provided with conducive learning environments. The CLASS has the potential to be very beneficial in maintaining the necessary components of academia such as classroom organization and support however, are those the only components formally evaluated? For instance, does the CLASS program offer any evaluation of possible discriminatory attitudes and behaviors? Regardless of whether discriminatory attitudes and behaviors stem from teachers, parents or classmates, they still make up the foundation of the classroom climate.
You mention the MyTeachingPartnet branch of CLASS does directly deal with these issues. Is this a response specifically to teacher discrimination or is this program for all teachers regardless of their evaluation? The use of recording teachers during classes is a great intervention to enhance self-awareness and prevent negative schemas and subsequent behavior. Perhaps, all teachers should be subject to this video recording during a class at random each year to ensure a constant maintenance with awareness and prevention. Although, I do not believe awareness can altogether change teacher’s beliefs, I do agree with you that teacher’s can be more conscious of their beliefs and strive to ensure their actions promote equality.
These programs are excellent interventions that definitely aim towards a reduction of prejudices and discrimination amongst teachers and academic staff. With this program and programs like this, students of minorities from any race, religion, background can have equal opportunities to be set up for success within the academic system. These programs encourage and allow for student self-concepts to be that of a positive and ambitious nature to, as you say, “flourish” (Day, 2014). Therefore, this must be the focus and priority of academia.
References
Day, M. (2014). Comment: Teacher and peer influence on academic performance. [Online discussion]. Retrieved from http://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2014/03/28/teacher-and-peer-influence-on-academic-performance/.
Your post makes a lot of essential points about the influential nature of students peer and academic atmosphere on students’ academic self-concept. Academic self-concept being the way that a student feels, perceives or thinks about their own academic abilities, particularly when contrasting their own abilities to those around them (Schneider, Gruman, & Coutts, 2005, p. 194). As you stated, teachers and classmates have an extremely strong relationship to the overall academic success of students, which is correlated to the way the students think about themselves academically (p. 194). The student interaction portion of the academic self-concept equation has been resolved through decreasing stereotypes and prejudices between peers utilizing encouragement of communication, working together, and increasing knowledge and awareness about said. The other side of the coin, as you also noted, is the importance of a teacher based training aspect to reduce biased schemas and treatment from teachers towards students to improve academic self-concept as well.
To that end, the effort to decrease the negative influences towards student academic self-concept, the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), based out of the University of Virginia Curry College of Education, has developed and implemented an evidence based Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). CLASS evaluates the effectiveness of classroom environments in relation to the level of conditions for positive student academic self-concept development. With CLASS, classrooms are assessed to determine those areas within the academic atmosphere that might need assistance in building up support and student care aspects, to include “emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support” and the various nuances within (such as “Teacher Sensitivity, Behavior Management, and Quality of Feedback“). (The Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, 2014a, p. 2)
Once need areas are identified, MyTeachingPartner (MTP) is the branch of CLASS, an intervention tool, that is implemented to help those classrooms that are found to be lacking, to improve their academic atmosphere (The Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning, 2014b, p. 1). MyTeachingPartner, developed through careful study by Robert Pianta and his colleagues, is a system of successfully training teachers to reduce the prevalence of preconceived judgments and related schemas to ensure fair and equal treatment with respect to learning environments within the classroom (Spiegel, 2012, p. 1). Through implementation of video recording of each teacher’s concordant class sessions and corresponding skills coaching, teachers are able to change their beliefs to ones of equality of expectation and treatment of students and to subsequently reduce biased teaching and interacting behaviors (p. 1).
Thus, through the utilization of first the Classroom Assessment Scoring System and then second the utilization of MyTeachingPartner, Pianta, his colleagues and the University of Virginia has brought to bare a system of proper educational atmosphere regulation and training that helps to raise the bar in what we expect from educational institutions. The utilization of CLASS and its corresponding component MyTeachingPartner engenders a standard of education where the academic atmosphere is capable of being at peak performance for student growth and success. Through this methodology, positive student academic self-concept should more easily flourish and allow students to reach their true potential, without the negative ramifications of prejudice, biases, and deleterious self-fulfilled prophecies that are too often rampant and left unchecked in our schools today.
References
The Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (2014a). Measuring and Improving Teacher-Student Interactions in PK-12 Setting to Enhance Students’ Learning. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://curry.virginia.edu/uploads/resourceLibrary/CLASS-MTP_PK-12_brief.pdf
The Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (2014b). MyTeachingPartner. Retrieved 2014, from http://curry.virginia.edu/research/centers/castl/mtp
Spiegel, A. (2012, September 17). Teachers’ Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform. Retrieved March 29, 2014, from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/18/161159263/teachers-expectations-can-influence-how-students-perform
Schneider, F. W., Gruman, J. A., & Coutts, L. M. (2005). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications. Kindle Edition.