Sex Role Expectations of Classroom Teachers, Grades 1–12

Abstract

The effect of the variables of student sex, grade level, and student achievement on teacher sex role expectations was assessed. Two hundred responses from 70 classroom teachers on the Teacher Sex Role Perception inventory (an adaptation of the Bern Sex Role Inventory) were analyzed. Of the four variables considered, student achievement alone was a highly significant predictor. Teachers classified highachieving students as androgynous and masculine. Low-achieving students were classified as feminine and undifferentiated. This negative relationship between the feminine sex role and high achievement may be a factor in declining female achievement over grade level.Achievement seems to decline for girls the longer they are in school, potentially limiting important life choices of many girls, while boys' achievement seems to increase over grade level. One factor which may influence student achievement is teacher expectation. Although the expectation effect (self-fulfilling prophecy effect) lacks consistent empirical support in its effect on student achievement, a "naturally" based expectancy (such as student sex might evoke) has greater support as a stimulus on teacher expectancy than do artificially induced expectations. For example, Seaver (1971) found that younger siblings of "good" students obtained higher achievement scores when they were assigned to the older siblings' previous teacher than they did if they were assigned to a new teacher. On the other hand, young siblings of "poor" students did significantly better with a new teacher than they did with their oldfer siblings' previous teacher. Naturally induced expectations This study was reported at the

Teachers of Gifted Girls: Are There Differences in Classroom Management?

“…Equally noteworthy is the teachers' judgment that academic interventions are as important for girls as boys, again regardless of typicality of behavior. These results are unexpected in the light of findings that teachers prefer gifted boys to girls (Solano, 1976;Welsh, 1977) and associate high achievement with males (Benz, Pfeiffer & Newman, 1981). Several possible explanations for the results may be proposed.…”

“…The results of this study, then, are not necessarily inconsistent with the findings of Benz, Pfeiffer & Newman (1981) that a male model of achievement prevails.…”

“…Solano (1976) and Welsh (1977) reported that teachers prefer intellectual, assertive boys to girls with similar traits. Benz, Pfeiffer & Newman (1981) find that teachers associate high achievement with masculine traits, while stereotypical female traits are associated with low achievement; high achieving girls were perceived as having more "masculine" or "androgynous" traits than low-achieving girls, and, overall, the model of high achievement was a masculine one for these teachers.…”