What’s on the Teacher Expectations poster
A definition and 6 facts worth remembering.
The claim that a teacher's expectation of a pupil influences that pupil's attainment through differences in how they are taught and treated.
- Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968, reported large effects.
- The original study has been heavily criticised.
- Later work finds real but small average effects.
- Effects are larger for stigmatised groups.
- Expectations are often accurate, not merely imposed.
- The behavioural route is what teachers can change.
- Original claim — large
- Current estimate — small, contested
- Differences show in observable behaviour: who is asked harder questions, who gets wai…
Educational reference. Contested in size. Treat the behaviours as the target, since they are visible and changeable, and the belief is not.
Questions about the Teacher Expectations poster
- What’s on the Teacher Expectations poster?
- A definition and 6 facts worth remembering. The claim that a teacher's expectation of a pupil influences that pupil's attainment through differences in how they are taught and treated. Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968, reported large effects.; The original study has been heavily criticised.; Later work finds real but small average effects.; Effects are larger for stigmatised groups.; Expectations are often accurate, not merely imposed.; The behavioural route is what teachers can change.; Original claim — large; Current estimate — small, contested; Differences show in observable behaviour: who is asked harder questions, who gets wai…. Educational reference. Contested in size. Treat the behaviours as the target, since they are visible and changeable, and the belief is not.
- Who is the Teacher Expectations poster for?
- Teacher Expectations belongs to the Education section rather than to a school year, because humanities is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning classroom practice can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Teacher Expectations poster?
- Read it before citing self-fulfilling prophecy as an established mechanism. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Teacher Expectations belongs on the wall where that humanities work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Teacher Expectations?
- A Behaviour System, Checking Understanding and Cutting Load In A Lesson sit alongside Teacher Expectations in the Education section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.A Behaviour SystemChecking UnderstandingCutting Load In A Lesson
- Is the Teacher Expectations poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Teacher Expectations downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Education section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Teacher Expectations poster print at?
- Teacher Expectations is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Teacher Expectations loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Teacher Expectations on the same wall.
Browse every Education poster, or start from the full catalogue.