Teachers’ stereotypes about secondary school students: the case of Germany

Abstract

Results of previous research about Pygmalion effects have demonstrated that teachers adapt their behavior towards their students according to their expectations of students. Inaccurate expectations of teachers’ behavior can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies regarding student and teacher performances. As this effect has been shown mostly for the individual level not much is known on the level of the group. Looking at the collective level school tracks play an important role in secondary education in some countries, e.g. Germany. The purpose of this study was to investigate how stereotypes held by teachers about their school tracks are related to the expectation-effects on the collective level and whether any connection exists with respect to the self-efficacy of teachers and their attributional style. Data were collected from 317 (213 females and 104 males) school teachers in Germany using a written-survey method. Results indicated that the performance and abilities of people at the highest school track were regarded positively. The self-efficacy of teachers at the highest school track had a statistical correlation with the consideration of the performance and talents of their students. The self-efficacy of teachers of the lower school track and of vocational schools had statistical connections to the consideration of the social behavior of their students. Results also showed that teachers attribute their students’ failures primarily to a lack of students’ effort.