Experimental evidence of effects of instructors' growth or fixed mindsets has so far been provided only by studies on U.S. university students. Research outside the US and on primary and secondary school students has relied on correlational data. In two preregistered vignette experiments with secondary school and university students in Germany (N…

Teachers' expectations are known to influence students' outcomes. Specifically, better performance is observed among students for whom teachers have high expectations, and vice versa. Teachers not only form their expectations on the basis of previous achievements, but also on the (presumed) group affiliation of students. One group for whom…

Although the promotion of students' language proficiency is an objective of all school subjects, many physics teachers self-evidently expect their students to apply sophisticated language repertoires. We assume that this expectation affects how physics teachers assess students' texts in a classroom assessment. More precisely, we suppose that…

Ethnic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, such as test scores, are a core issue of educational research. While the role of student and family factors in the formation of such disparities is well established, existing studies fail to draw a similarly clear picture of how teachers contribute to ethnic and racial achievement gaps. In…

Teachers' use of everyday cognitive heuristics can lead to biases in information processing and, thus, to unfair assessments of student characteristics. This problem can be addressed by a core aspect of research-based learning, i.e., by making use of principles and methods of empirical research in order to systematically collect information.…

This study examined the role of teacher expectations in the emerging gender gaps in reading and mathematics in the first year of schooling. Therefore, we first investigated whether boys and girls differ in their vulnerability to teacher expectancy effects. Second, we analysed whether gender-specific effects of teacher expectations contribute to…

Male students with immigrant backgrounds are disproportionally referred for special educational support outside regular classrooms or schools, which may reflect differential teachers' expectations concerning the academic achievement of students based on sociodemographic characteristics. Although research has indicated differential teachers'…

The central concern of this article is to compare the constructions of differences in inclusive school settings between countries with different school systems. The focus is to find out how constructions of differences generate participation and (dis)advantages and, thereafter, how the constructions are related to the structure of the school…

Teachers' judgments of students' academic achievement are not only affected by the achievement themselves but also by several other characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, and minority status. In real-life classrooms, achievement and further characteristics are often confounded. We disentangled achievement, ethnicity and minority status and…

Based on theories of social information processing and judgment formation, we investigated whether teachers' achievement expectations, achievement aspirations and judgments of achievement-relevant characteristics depend on students' ethnic and/or social backgrounds. Furthermore, we addressed whether judgments for minority students are negatively…

Focusing on students' attempts to explain the relative significance of different factors in Hitler's rise to power, Catherine McCrory explores the vexed question of why students who seem able to express necessary historical knowledge on one occasion cannot effectively reproduce it on another. Drawing on a detailed analysis of what it actually…

In their workaday life, teachers are faced with multiple complex tasks. How they carry out these tasks is also influenced by their epistemic beliefs and the beliefs they assume their pupils hold. In an empirical study, pre-service teachers' epistemic beliefs and those they assume of their pupils were investigated in the setting of teacher…

In Germany, Turkish students are overrepresented on lowest school tracks. Research has provided evidence that stereotypical expectations can color judgments. We experimentally investigated whether student information that strongly confirmed or disconfirmed Turkish stereotypical expectations led to student teachers' judgments that were biased…

Children's transition to school is a key issue in early years of education. Research in this field points to the counterintuitive possibility that the transition to school may actually lead to a reduction rather than a facilitation of children's agency. The paper presents findings of a longitudinal comparative ethnography on children's transition…

Two studies investigated in which situations teachers (would) investigate whether a student was lying or telling the truth and how these situations were perceived. Results of Study 1 indicate that teachers (would) interview students when it comes to use of unfair means, aggressive behavior, theft, absence without permission, bullying, and…