A student mediation model of teacher expectation effects proposes that students acquire information about their abilities by observing the differential teacher treatment accorded high and low achievers. They then revise their own achievement expectations and subsequently perform according to the expectations perceived. This article reports the findings of two studies that tested hypotheses derived from this model. Student perceptions of teacher treatment toward hypothetical high and low achievers were used to distinguish high-differential-treatment classrooms from low-differential-treatment classrooms. In the first study, students were also asked to report teacher treatment toward themselves. Only in high-differential-treatment classrooms did recipients of high and low teacher expectations perceive teacher treatment toward themselves that was consistent with the patterns of differential teacher treatment reported. In the second study, hierarchical regression analyses showed that teacher expectations contributed more to the prediction of student expectations and achievement in high-than in low-differential-treatment classrooms. These findings provide support for a student mediation model of teacher expectation effects.

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234 4th–6th graders from 8 open and 8 traditional classrooms completed the Teacher Treatment Inventory, rating the frequency with which 44 teacher behaviors were accorded 1 of 4 hypothetical target students. Nominations by principals and teacher self-ratings on the Walberg-Thomas Open Education Teacher Questionnaire were used to operationally define classroom structure. Ss described low achievers (LAs) as the recipients of more negative feedback, teacher direction, schoolwork, and rule orientation than high achievers (HAs). HAs were perceived as receiving higher expectations and more opportunity and choice than LAs. These treatment differences were perceived regardless of sex of student rated. The hypothesis that Ss in open classrooms would perceive less differential treatment of HAs and LAs than Ss in traditional classrooms was not supported. Although unrelated to the open or traditional orientation of teachers, classrooms did differ in the extent of differential treatment perceived by Ss.

This study explores age and classroom differences in children's awareness of teacher expectations and in the relation between awareness and self-expectations. In a sample of 579 children and their teachers in 30 first- (6-7-year-olds), third- (8-9-year-olds), and fifth-grade (10-11-year-olds) classrooms, assessed in the fall, younger children were found to be less accurate than fifth graders in predicting teacher expectations and in reporting differential patterns in their own interactions with the teacher. Yet first graders identified classroom differences in the degree of differential teacher treatment toward high and low achievers that were associated with differences in the expectations that high and low teacher-expectancy students reported for themselves. Fifth graders appeared more likely than younger children to mirror teacher expectancies in their self-descriptions regardless of the degree of differential treatment reported in the classroom environment.

In this study, we began to test a model of classroom structural and interactional variables postulated as influencing students' achievement expectations. Observations were made in 12 first-, third-, and fifth-grade classrooms identified by students as high or low in extent of teachers' differential treatment toward high and low achievers. Narrative records and an observational scale were used. Hypotheses concerning structural differences between classrooms (e.g., grouping) were largely unsupported. Hypotheses concerning more positive teacher-student interactions in low-compared with high-differential-treatment classrooms were supported for Grade 5, compared with the opposite pattern for Grade 1. Statistical analyses were limited, however, by the infrequent occurrence of certain behaviors. Analyses of patterns of variables within individual classrooms and of themes from narrative records demonstrated within-classroom variability and the importance of considering interactions among variables, which may compensate for the effect of individual variables. Teachers' beliefs and attitudes may affect implementation of certain structuring strategies.In reviews of research on the mediation of teacher expectancy effects (Brophy, 1983;Good, 1980;Harris & Rosenthal, 1985), authors have highlighted teacher behaviors that are related to the communication of expectations to students, for example, praise, criticism, and frequency of interaction. Most of this research has been guided by models of the communication of teacher expectations that include two sets of links among the variables-(a) links between teacher expectations and teacher behaviors that are differentially accorded to high or low achievers or to students for whom teachers hold high and low expectations (highand low-expectation students) and (b) links between these differential teacher behaviors and student outcomes. In analyzing research concerning this chain of communication of expectations, Harris and Rosenthal reported discrepancies between the links in this chain: Some teacher behaviors