Expectations & Education

"When you lighten someone's load, you don't allow them to expand." This quote is from Invisibilia's "How to Become Batman" podcast. The main idea behind this episode is that our expectations affect others, and their expectations affect us. As a student-teacher, I took this as a reminder that I need to be cognizant of my own expectations. I need to take stock of my expectations, particularly my expectations for myself and my students.

Jacob and Wilder (2010) highlight the importance of expectations in education: "Expectations have become somewhat less predictive of attainment over the past several decades but expectations remain strong predictors of attainment above and beyond other standard determinants of schooling."

If you're interested in further readings, you can check out this article about how teachers' expectations affect student learning. Finally, here is a video about student expectations that raises some important points in an engaging way: