The purpose of this paper is to explore differences in the nature of classrooms where students perceive high and low amounts of differential teacher treatment between high and low achievers. The Teacher Treatment Inventory was used to measure students' perceptions of the frequency of 30 teacher behaviors towards a hypothetical male or female high…

Students' descriptions of characteristics of high and low achievers and their treatment by peers and teachers were examined through semi-structured interviews with 133 fourth-graders. Coded interviews were anlayzed for differences in descriptions of the characteristics and peer and teacher treatment of high and low achievers; and whether these…

This report presents the findings of a three-year study that was based on the hypothesis that expectations play a critical role affecting different educational opportunities and rewards for learning, ultimately contributing to differences in educational outcomes between individuals and groups of individuals. The study assessed how 579 students in…

This paper maintains that learning for the purpose of understanding is central to classes that are oriented towards learning. Such classes, which can be said to have a "learning orientation," can be differentiated from classes where an emphasis on performance or doing work increases the likelihood of rote or short-term learning. Four…

The relationship between classroom characteristics and student perceptions of differential teacher treatment in elementary classrooms was examined. Teacher treatment was found to be unrelated to openness of classroom structure. In all classrooms, teachers gave more negative feedback, direction, more orientation to work, and rules to low than to…

Two fifth grade classrooms representing the extremes of classrooms where students perceived high and low differential teacher treatment were studied to obtain a more in-depth picture of the nature of classrooms that are expected to have contrasting effects on students' expectations and self-evaluations, and to begin to explore a model of classroom…