Negatively or positively biased? Dependencies of teachers’ judgments and expectations based on students’ ethnic and social backgrounds

Relationships of paraeducators and teachers with their autistic students

Paraeducators play an important role in the classroom experiences of many autistic students. Although previous research has indicated that autistic students typically have strained relationships with their teachers, little is known about their relationships with paraeducators. We examined relationship quality reported by teachers (N = 171) and paraeducators (N = 28) with their elementary-age autistic students (IQ ≥ 50, ages 4-8 years, Grades PreK-3). Paraeducators reported strained relationships with their autistic students relative to normative means. This was especially apparent when compared with teacher report as paraeducators reported significantly lower overall relationship quality with their autistic students marked by higher conflict and dependency, yet similar reports of closeness. Indirect effect analysis indicated that higher conflict between paraeducators and their autistic students was accounted for by their fewer years of classroom experience compared to teachers. These findings should encourage school psychologists to consider the systemic factors likely contributing to paraeducators' fewer years of experiences and, as members of special education teams, use a consultative framework to provide supports needed to foster positive relationships between paraeducators and their autistic students.

Teacher's social desirability bias and Migrant students: A study on explicit and implicit prejudices with a list experiment

Scholarly research has consistently shown that teachers present negative assessments of and attitudes toward migrant students. However, previous studies have not clearly addressed the distinction between implicit and explicit prejudices, or identified their underlying sources. This study identifies the explicit and implicit prejudices held by elementary and middle school teachers regarding the learning abilities of an ethnic minority group: Haitian students within the Chilean educational system. We use a list experiment to assess how social desirability and intergroup attitudes toward minority students influence teachers' prejudices. The findings reveal that teachers harbor implicit prejudices towards Haitian students and are truthful in reporting their attitudes, thereby contradicting the desirability bias hypothesis. We suggest that teachers rely on stereotypes associated with the students' nationality when assessing Haitian students' learning abilities. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to theories grounded in stereotypes and intergroup attitudes.

Does the ‘Learning Disability’ label lower teachers’ performance expectations?

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 teachers have low-performance expectations are students with learning disabilities. Studies in English-speaking countries have shown that the explicit mention of the diagnosis learning disability lowers teachers’ performance expectations for students labelled in this way. Our study aims to explore (1) whether the effects of this label on performance expectations can be replicated in a sample of prospective teachers in Germany, (2) whether regular and special education teachers generally differ in their expectations, and (3) whether the learning disability label influences the two professional groups differently. In an experimental design, N = 276 participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental or the control group. In both groups, they read the description of a fictitious student showing major academic problems. The student was labelled as having a learning disability in the experimental group only. Different dependent variables concerning performance expectations were evaluated. The results show that while no main effect of the learning disability label was observed, prospective special education teachers partially seem to have lower performance expectations than prospective regular education teachers. Further analysis showed that the participants in the experimental group and special education teachers suspect a learning disability more frequently. Limitations and directions for the further research are discussed.

Teacher attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual students: Evidence for intergroup contact theory and secondary transfer effects

This article presents two studies that tested the predictive validity of intergroup contact theory and secondary transfer effects related to pre-service teacher attitudes toward sexual minority youth in classrooms. Multiple regression of feeling thermometer scores in Study 1 (N = 989) suggested that more favorable attitudes are present among younger, female, bisexual or homosexual, less religious, politically left-wing pre-service teachers with lesbian, gay, and bisexual contacts. Associations with family membership and hometown size were nonsignificant. Analyses of variance in Study 2 (N = 406) showed statistically significant secondary transfer effects. For instance, teacher candidates with no lesbian women contacts showed less sexual prejudice toward lesbian students if they were in social contact with gay men and bisexual people. Implications for teacher education, teacher professionalism, and the need to create safe spaces in school for LGBTQIA+ students are discussed.

Gender and minority background as moderators of teacher expectation effects on self-concept, subjective task values, and academic performance

Two developments in teacher expectation research formed the basis for the current study. First, researchers have begun investigating the self-fulfilling prophecy effects of teacher expectations on a variety of psycho-social outcomes in addition to the effects on academic achievement. Second, researchers have started to realize that some groups of students appeared to be more vulnerable or susceptible to teacher expectations. The current study aimed to investigate whether students’ gender and minority background were moderators of teacher expectation effects for both academic outcomes and self-concept and subjective task value in the mathematics domain. The study is based on a sample of 1663 students (Grades 6 and 7) in 42 classes from three intermediate schools in New Zealand. Multilevel modeling was applied using MLwiN software. First, after controlling for students’ beginning-of-year mathematics achievement, teacher expectations were higher for Asian and lower for Māori, compared with New Zealand European students. Expectations within the domain of mathematics, however, were higher for girls than for boys. Second, teachers’ beginning-year expectations were predictive of achievement and self-concept of students at end-of-year, after controlling for beginning-of-year achievement and self-concept. Teachers’ expectations were, however, not predictive of end-of-year intrinsic and utility value. Third, we did not find evidence for moderation effects of students’ gender and minority background. These findings imply that despite the roughly similar magnitude of teacher expectation effects for various student groups, teacher expectations may contribute to gaps in students’ achievement and self-concept because of differential expectations at the beginning of the year.

Automatic and controlled information processing in the context of students’ ethnic background and social status: An eye-tracking study

Based on the continuum model of impression formation (Fiske & Neuberg, 1990), information processing can be more or less automated or controlled and thus relies more or less on stereotype-based or individual-based characteristics. Also, teachers’ impression formation can be influenced by social categories like students’ ethnic background or social status. However, when teachers form an impression of students’ abilities or performance social categories should not play a role. But a lot of empirical findings show that teachers make a difference depending on students’ backgrounds. Whether this can be explained by a more automated or controlled information processing depending on students’ backgrounds is still an open question. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to investigate teacher students’ impression formation in dependence on students’ ethnic backgrounds and social status. In order to investigate whether information processing differs according to students’ ethnic backgrounds and social status, an experimental eye-tracking study with 45 teacher students was designed. As physiological processes are strongly connected to psychological processes, specific eye-movements can be interpreted as indicators for physiological arousal in first place, but might also allow conclusions about mental processes like information processing. Pupil diameter and blink rate were measured while participants read three case vignettes with manipulated student background. Analysis of variance with repeated measures showed differences in pupil diameter and blink rate according to students’ background. Results showed less arousal when forming an impression about students without immigrant background and with high social status compared to students with immigrant background and with low social status. This might indicate more automated information processing for non-immigrant students with high-status, and more controlled processing for students with immigrant background and low-status.

Teachers’ dysfunctional feedback to students from immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds: A pilot study

Teachers often provide more positive feedback to ethnic minority students than to ethnic majority students in order to compensate for potential discrimination. However, even feedback that sounds positive can have unwanted effects on the students, such as reinforcing negative beliefs and reducing motivation. In this experimental pilot study, we investigated whether teachers were more likely to convey such dysfunctional feedback to students from immigrant backgrounds than to students from non-immigrant backgrounds. Teachers (N = 186) read descriptions of classroom situations and indicated the feedback they would provide to the fictive students. The students’ names implied either an immigrant background associated with low competence stereotypes or no immigrant background. For the most part, feedback did not differ according to immigrant status. Yet, there were some situation-specific differences: When immigrant students failed despite effort, teachers used a simpler language in their feedback. In one of two scenarios describing students who succeeded easily without effort, teachers were more likely to provide dysfunctional ability feedback, dysfunctional effort feedback, and inflated praise to a student from an immigrant background than to a student from a non-immigrant background. A subsequent expert survey (N = 12) was conducted to evaluate the scenario-based feedback test. In sum, the study contributes to the field by providing first signs that students from immigrant backgrounds might be at risk of receiving not only more positive but actually more dysfunctional feedback. Furthermore, the study presents a practice-oriented, standardized, and economic instrument to assess teachers’ dysfunctional feedback, which may be used in future research.

“This Student Needs to Stay Back”: To What Degree Would Instructors Rely on the Recommendation of Learning Analytics?

Learning analytics (LA) systems are becoming a new source of advice for instructors. Using LA provides new insights into learning behaviours and occurring problems about learners. Educational platforms collect a wide range of data while learners use them, for example, time spent on the platform, passed exams, and completed tasks and provide recommendations in terms of predicted learning success based on LA. In turn, LA might increase efficiency and objectivity in the grading process. In this paper, we examine how instructors react to the platform’s automatic recommendations and to which extent they consider them when judging learners. Drawing on an adaptive choice-based experimental research design and a sample of 372 instructors, we analyze whether and to what degree instructors are influenced by the provided data and recommendations of an unknown LA system. In a follow-up study with 95 teachers, we describe the differences in the use of data between learners and the influence of early warning systems. All in all, we show the influence of automatic evaluation on teachers.

German Teachers’ Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Female and Male Muslim Students and Reactions to Social Exclusion

Abstract. Research has shown negative teachers’ attitudes toward ethnic minority students, who – in Germany – often belong to Islam which is stereotypically associated with traditional gender roles. So far, neither implicit attitudes nor the role of student gender have been investigated in this context. Among a sample of 136 teachers, we assessed implicit attitudes toward Muslim students in relation to Christian students using an Implicit Association Test. Implicit and explicit attitudes were less positive toward male than toward female Muslim students. After reading a social exclusion scenario, teachers were asked how they would react. Teachers’ reactions depended on the religion and the gender of the student. Our study implies that Islam might be part of the disadvantages ethnic minority students experience in school.

Why Is Murat’s Achievement So Low? Causal Attributions and Implicit Attitudes Toward Ethnic Minority Students Predict Preservice Teachers’ Judgments About Achievement

In many educational systems, ethnic minority students score lower in their academic achievement, and consequently, teachers develop low expectations regarding this student group. Relatedly, teachers’ implicit attitudes, explicit expectations, and causal attributions also differ between ethnic minority and ethnic majority students—all in a disadvantageous way for ethnic minority students. However, what is not known so far, is how attitudes and causal attributions contribute together to teachers’ judgments. In the current study, we explored how implicit attitudes and causal attributions contribute to preservice teachers’ judgments of the low educational success of an ethnic minority student. Results showed that both implicit attitudes and causal attributions predicted language proficiency and intelligence judgments. Negative implicit attitudes, assessed with the IRAP, and internal stable causal attributions led to lower judgments of language proficiency, whereas lower judgments of intelligence were predicted by positive implicit attitudes and higher judgments of intelligence by external stable attributions. Substantial differences in the prediction of judgments could be found between the IRAP and BIAT as measures of implicit attitudes.

When ethnic minority students are judged as more suitable for the highest school track: a shifting standards experiment

When students are grouped into school tracks, this has lasting consequences for their learning and later careers. In Germany to date, some groups of students (boys, ethnic minority students) are underrepresented in the highest track. Stereotypes about these groups exist that entail negative expectations about their suitability for the highest track. Based on the shifting standards model, the present research examines if and how stereotypes influence tracking recommendations. According to this theory, members of negatively stereotyped groups will be judged more leniently or more strictly depending on the framing of the judgment situation (by inducing minimum or confirmatory standards). N = 280 teacher students participated in a vignette study in which they had to choose the amount of positive evidence for suitability they wanted to see before deciding to recommend a fictitious student to the highest track. A 2 (judgment standard: minimum vs. confirmatory) × 2 (target student’s gender: male vs. female) × 2 (target student’s ethnicity: no migration background vs. Turkish migration background) between-subjects design was used. No effects of target gender occurred, but the expected interaction of target’s ethnicity and judgment standard emerged. In the minimum standard condition, less evidence was required for the ethnic minority student to be recommended for the highest track compared to the majority student. In the confirmatory standards condition, however, participants tended to require less evidence for the ethnic majority student. Our experiment underlines the importance of the framing of the recommendation situation, resulting in a more lenient or stricter assessment of negatively stereotyped groups.

Die Qualität des Lehrkraftverhaltens in Lehrkraft-Kind-Dyaden

Zusammenfassung. Das Verhalten von Lehrkräften in Lehrkraft-Kind-Dyaden kann auf den beiden universalen orthogonalen Dimensionen interpersonalen Verhaltens beschrieben werden: Communion (z.B. Wärme, Bedürfnisbefriedigung) und Agency (z.B. Lenkung, Kontrolle). Bestimmte Kombinationen auf diesen Dimensionen haben sich als günstig erwiesen: Schülerinnen und Schüler lernen besonders motiviert und viel, wenn ihre Lehrkraft starke Communion zeigt. Weniger eindeutig ist, ob eine moderat starke oder starke Agency der Lehrkraft besonders vorteilhaft ist. Wir untersuchen unter Verwendung des neu konstruierten Fragebogens zum Lehrkraftverhalten in dyadischen Lehrkraft-Lernenden-Beziehungen, ob Lehrkräfte ihre Agency komplementär zur Kompetenz des Kindes ausrichten und ob sich dies auch in stärkerer Agency gegenüber Gruppen von Kindern niederschlägt, deren mittlere Kompetenz geringer ist, nämlich (a) Kindern mit sonderpädagogischen Förderbedarf, (b) Kindern mit nichtdeutscher Erstsprache und (c) Jungen. Zweiundsiebzig Lehrkräfte beschrieben ihr Verhalten gegenüber fünf Kindern ihrer Klasse ( N = 302) auf jeweils 13 Items, die in einem Zirkumplex acht Facetten unterschiedlicher Kombinationen von Communion und Agency erfassen. Noten wurden als Proxy für Kompetenzen genutzt. Wie erwartet korrelierten Facetten mit sehr starker Agency positiv ( r = .54 und .65) und Facetten mit sehr schwacher Agency negativ ( r = –.46 und –.59) mit den Noten des Kindes. Nach Aggregation der Angaben über die Gruppen von Kindern zeigte sich, dass Lehrkräfte gegenüber Kindern mit sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf oder mit nichtdeutscher Erstsprache auf Verhaltensfacetten mit starker Agency höhere Ausprägungen aufwiesen als gegenüber Kindern ohne das entsprechende Merkmal, unabhängig von der Stärke der Communion der Facetten. Diese Unterschiede verschwanden meist nach Kontrolle der Noten. Gegenüber Jungen (relativ zu Mädchen) gaben die Lehrkräfte höhere Ausprägungen auf Facetten mit (moderat) starker Agency bei gleichzeitig nur (moderat) schwacher Communion an, auch nach der Berücksichtigung der Noten. Die Ergebnisse werden bzgl. der Forschung (a) zum Zusammenhang zwischen Lehrkraftverhalten und Motivation der Lernenden und (b) zu den Ursachen des geringeren Bildungserfolgs von Jungen diskutiert.

Non-committed judgements of, versus feedback on, student essays: Is feedback inflation for students with a migration background?

When providing feedback, teachers are concerned not only with the simple transmission of information, but also with motivational and interpersonal dynamics. To mitigate these concerns, teachers may inflate feedback by reducing negative or increasing positive content. The resulting difference between initial judgments and feedback may be even more drastic for ethnic minority students: In non-communicated judgments, negative stereotypes may result in more negative judgments, whereas in feedback, concerns about being or appearing prejudiced may inflate feedback towards ethnic minority students. These hypotheses were tested in a sample of 132 German teacher students in a 2 (between subjects: feedback vs. non-communicated judgment) × 2 (within subjects: target student's migration background: Turkish vs. none) design in which participants read supposed student essays and provided their written impressions to the research team or the supposed student. Findings revealed that teacher students’ feedback was more positive than their non-communicated judgments on a multitude of dimensions. Contrary to expectations, these effects were not stronger when the student had a Turkish migration background. Instead, teacher students rated the essay of the student with a Turkish migration background more favorably both in the judgment and feedback conditions. Our results suggest that teachers adapt their initial judgments when giving feedback to account for interpersonal or motivational dynamics. Moreover, ethnic minority students may be especially likely to receive overly positive feedback. While the motivational/interpersonal dynamics may warrant some inflation in feedback, negative consequences of overly positive feedback, for which ethnic minority students may be especially vulnerable, are discussed.

How teachers form educational expectations for students: A comparative factorial survey experiment in three institutional contexts

While schools are thought to use meritocratic criteria when evaluating students, research indicates that teachers hold lower expectations for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, it is unclear what the unique impact is of specific student traits on teacher expectations, as different traits are often correlated to one another in real life. Moreover, research has neglected the role of the institutional context, yet tracking procedures, financial barriers to education, and institutionalized cultural beliefs may influence how teachers form expectations. We conducted a factorial survey experiment in three contexts that vary with respect to these institutional characteristics (The United States, New York City; Norway, Oslo; the Netherlands, Amsterdam). We asked elementary school teachers to express expectations for hypothetical students whose characteristics were experimentally manipulated. Teachers in the different contexts used the same student traits when forming expectations, yet varied in the importance they attached to these traits. In Amsterdam - where teachers track students on the basis of their performance and tracking bears significant consequences for educational careers - we found a large impact of student performance. In Oslo - where institutions show an explicit commitment to equality of educational opportunity - teachers based their expectations less on student effort, and seemed to make more inferences about student performance by a student's socio-economic background. New York teachers seemed to make few inferences about student performance based on their socio-economic background.

Why lockdown and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to increase the social class achievement gap

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced teachers and parents to quickly adapt to a new educational context: distance learning. Teachers developed online academic material while parents taught the exercises and lessons provided by teachers to their children at home. Considering that the use of digital tools in education has dramatically increased during this crisis, and it is set to continue, there is a pressing need to understand the impact of distance learning. Taking a multidisciplinary view, we argue that by making the learning process rely more than ever on families, rather than on teachers, and by getting students to work predominantly via digital resources, school closures exacerbate social class academic disparities. To address this burning issue, we propose an agenda for future research and outline recommendations to help parents, teachers and policymakers to limit the impact of the lockdown on social-class-based academic inequality.

Differentiation and Grouping Practices as a Response to Heterogeneity - Teachers' Implementation of Inclusive Teaching Approaches in Regular, Inclusive and Special Classrooms

Addressing students' individual needs is a crucial component of inclusive teaching. However, empirical evidence comparing practices such as differentiation and grouping strategies within inclusive, regular and special classes is still lacking. The present study contrasts these settings using data from the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS). Data from 1034 teachers (755 regular, 89 inclusive, 190 special teachers) teaching the subject German in secondary school (grade 5 to grade 8) were used. Results show the highest use of differentiation in special school classes. Teachers' use the majority of grouping practices to a similar extent when comparing the three educational settings. Class size and the number of students with migration background were predictors for teachers' use of differentiation, whereas patterns of grouping strategies were predicted by students' gender and teachers' experience.

The role of preservice teachers’ implicit attitudes and causal attributions: a deeper look into students’ ethnicity

Previous research has provided evidence that teachers implicitly hold more negative attitudes toward ethnic minority students than toward ethnic majority students. Furthermore, they attribute the lower educational success of ethnic minority students predominantly to internal causes. So far, it is not known how implicit attitudes and causal attributions are related to preservice teachers’ judgments of students’ academic competencies. We conducted a study to close this research gap. In a sample of preservice teachers, our study showed mainly negative implicit attitudes toward ethnic minority students. On general, the preservice teachers made external attributions. Implicit attitudes as well as causal attributions predicted the judgments. Preservice teachers with more negative attitudes and preservice teachers, who attributed the failure of ethnic minority students to these students’ abilities, less favorably judged the competence of ethnic minority students. Our results highlight the role of teachers’ attitudes and causal attributions in determining the disadvantages that ethnic minority students experience in school.

Subtle discrimination: do stereotypes among teachers trigger bias in their expectations and widen ethnic achievement gaps?

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 contrast to previous studies, which focussed on the consequences of rather blatant forms of discrimination, such as in teachers’ grading practices, this study investigates rather subtle processes that might result in discrimination of ethnic and racial minority students. In particular, I address stereotypes among teachers and analyse if they induce bias in their achievement expectations for ethnic minority school beginners. Additionally, I analyse if such bias results in a self-fulfilling prophecy and contributes to ethnic achievement gaps at the end of first grade. Multilevel regressions applied to a sample of 1007 children and 64 teachers in German primary schools reveal that different teachers internalize distinct stereotypes regarding ethnic achievement gaps and the achievement-related attributes of ethnic minority students. I also find that teachers with more negative stereotypes expect lower mathematics and reading achievements for ethnic minority students at the beginning of first grade. However, although I replicate the finding that inaccurate teacher expectations result in a self-fulfilling prophecy, I find no statistically significant effects of teacher stereotypes on ethnic differences in the development of students’ reading and mathematical skills throughout first grade.

A new method for studying the halo effect in teachers' judgement and its antecedents: Bringing out the role of certainty

BACKGROUND

In academic contexts, teachers' judgements are central to instruction and have many consequences for students' self-perceptions. Understanding the cognitive biases that may exist in teachers' judgements is thus of central importance.

AIMS

This paper presents two studies in which we aimed to investigate the presence of a halo effect in teachers' judgements (Study 1 and Study 2) and to clarify the conditions for the emergence of this halo effect by analysing the influence of judgement certainty (Study 2). A major contribution of these studies was to provide a new measure of the halo effect in order to achieve these goals.

SAMPLE(S)

In the first study, 25 teachers and their 199 students were asked to complete the measures, while the second study sample was composed of 20 teachers and their 180 students.

METHOD

To analyse the presence of the halo effect in teachers' judgements in the two studies, scholastic achievement was measured using various standardized French language tests. Teachers were asked to indicate, for each of their students, whether they thought the student would answer correctly or incorrectly for each item on the standardized tests. In Study 2, to analyse the influence of judgement certainty, the teachers were asked to indicate after each item how certain they were about their response.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The results of both studies revealed the presence of a halo effect in teachers' judgements for each measure used (i.e., comparison of correlations, factorial analyses, and the new measure comparing variance scores), as the teachers' judgements were more homogeneous than the students' actual achievement levels. Furthermore, using the new measure, the second study revealed that high judgement certainty resulted in a stronger halo effect.

Achievement development is less important for school-placement recommendations when students are stereotyped

With this study we examined with a sample of N = 102 primary-school teachers whether their use of information about students’ achievement development for placement recommendations depended on student ethnicity. We applied student vignettes to mimic real students, and orthogonally varied student ethnicity, their GPA development, suggested by their last two school reports in primary school, and their grand mean of grades. We found that students were more likely to be recommended for the highest track when their grand mean of grades indicated higher achievements and when their GPA improved rather than declined. Moreover, we found strong evidence that teachers applied ethnic stereotypes when making school-placement recommendations. If the students fitted an ethnic stereotype, teachers tend to ignore information about their achievement development, whereas if the students did not fit an ethnic stereotype, teachers’ judgments were rather based on all information that was provided about the students. Hence, achievement development was less important for school-placement recommendations when students were stereotyped than when they were not stereotyped. Implications of the results were discussed.

Teachers' multicultural attitudes and perspective taking abilities as factors in culturally responsive teaching

Background

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) has been associated with increased student engagement and achievement. Its practice in classrooms, however, has been shown to be less than optimal. Nonetheless, certain teacher qualities have been suggested to facilitate its practice.

Aims

The current study sought quantitative evidence in support of two of these teacher qualities, namely teachers’ multicultural attitudes, and their perspective taking abilities. By identifying the strength of the suggested relationships, we aimed to examine the generalizability of previous findings in the literature and inform teachers’ professional development and interventions.

Sample

A total of 143 primary school teachers from different parts of the Netherlands responded to our online survey.

Methods

We conducted a multivariate multiple regression analysis to investigate the relationship between these qualities and teachers’ engagement in two separate but related components of CRT (i.e., socially sensitive and culturally sensitive teaching).

Results

Results of our analysis yielded significant relationships between the two teacher qualities and the frequency with which teachers engage in socially and culturally sensitive teaching. Perspective taking was a stronger predictor for both aspects of CRT.

Conclusion

These findings signal the significance of incorporating especially perspective taking experiences and exercises into teacher education and professional development programmes, which could benefit all students regardless of their backgrounds. Our results are promising as these qualities are malleable and thus can be improved.

Teachers' attitudes towards ethnic minority students: Effects of schools' cultural diversity

BACKGROUND

Research exploring mechanisms driving inequalities in school systems has found that biased teacher judgements contribute to observed disadvantages for ethnic minority students. Teacher judgements may be driven by explicit and implicit attitudes.

AIMS

The current research explored the effect of cultural diversity at schools (actual or imagined) on teachers' attitudes towards ethnic minority students.

SAMPLES

One hundred and five preservice teachers (90 female) with a mean age of 26.20 years (teaching experience: 57.55 weeks) participated in Study 1. Two hundred and thirty-one teachers (159 female) with a mean age of 41.00 years (teaching experience: 12.92 years) participated in Study 2.

METHOD

Cultural diversity was operationalized via a fictive description of a school (Study 1) or via the actual proportion of ethnic minority students at the school (Study 2). An Implicit Association Test assessed implicit attitudes towards ethnic minority students. Explicit attitudes were assessed via questionnaire.

RESULTS

Preservice teachers imagining a more culturally diverse school held more negative implicit attitudes towards ethnic minority students than those imagining a less diverse school. In contrast, in-service teachers actually working in more diverse schools held less negative implicit attitudes towards minority students. Preservice teachers associated teaching in culturally diverse schools with increased effort, whereas in-service teachers actually working in culturally diverse schools reported more enthusiasm towards teaching ethnic minority students.

CONCLUSIONS

This research shows the challenge and the negative stereotypes preservice teachers associate with culturally diverse schools, while in-service teachers' negative associations may be buffered by the actual experience of working with ethnic minority students.

(Biased) Grading of Students' Performance: Students' Names, Performance Level, and Implicit Attitudes

Biases in pre-service teachers’ evaluations of students’ performance may arise due to stereotypes (e.g., the assumption that students with a migrant background have lower potential). This study examines the effects of a migrant background, performance level, and implicit attitudes toward individuals with a migrant background on performance assessment (assigned grades and number of errors counted in a dictation). Pre-service teachers (N = 203) graded the performance of a student who appeared to have a migrant background statistically significantly worse than that of a student without a migrant background. The differences were more pronounced when the performance level was low and when the pre-service teachers held relatively positive implicit attitudes toward individuals with a migrant background. Interestingly, only performance level had an effect on the number of counted errors. Our results support the assumption that pre-service teachers exhibit bias when grading students with a migrant background in a third-grade level dictation assignment.