Classrooms Observed (RLE Edu L) The Teacher's Perception and the Pupil's Peformance

In this study – the outcome of three years’ participant observation in local authority primary and secondary schools – the classroom teacher is shown to have a far greater impact upon and responsibility for his pupils than is generally admitted. The teacher’s perceptions of the children in his class are demonstrated to have a more important bearing on the pupils’ attainment than the major factor of their social class. In carrying out this research, Roy Nash has moved outside the mainstream tradition of educational psychology to take into account the methods of anthropology and sociology. He shows, by looking at the actual behaviour of teachers and children in classrooms, and by following the pupils from several different primary schools through to the same local authority secondary school, how the teacher’s expectations for his pupils can act as self-fulfilling prophecies. The author’s illuminating research is illustrated with tables and with three Appendices.

1. Introduction. 2. Children and Their Class Positions. 3. Teachers’ Perceptions of their Pupils. 4. Social Measures and Classroom Measures. 5. The Development of a Research Plan. 6. From Primary to Secondary School. 7. Pupil Behaviour and Teacher Perception in Secondary School. 8. The Perception of Pupils by Primary and Secondary Teachers. 9. Academic Self-Perception. 10. Friendship Cliques in Primary and Secondary School. 11. Conclusion. Appendix A: A Scale for Measuring Institutional Control in Schools. Appendix B: The Personal Construct Systems of Three Secondary Teachers. Appendix C: Social Class and IQ Measurement. References. Index.

Roy Nash