This is why students in middle school and high school are so often taught to be independent and critical thinkers. The teacher and parent expectations have to be set at a young age.
Unfortunately, this is also why teachers and parents are often so terrible at setting expectations. There’s no reason for it to be this way. We all set expectations, no matter how unreasonable.
Research from Harvard University and the University of Oregon indicates that this is true and that the best way to set expectations for a child is to set them the right way. The research showed that parents and teachers set them up for success if they give them some sort of challenge. For example, a teacher might give a student a task to complete. If his or her child does well, the teacher might then set up an easier task for the student.
In my research, I found that middle schoolers who get some sort of challenge out of it (like a test or a quiz) are less likely to drop out of school. For example, if a student gets a test that’s too easy, they might begin to think that they really can’t do it, or that it’s not that important.
This is probably one of the reasons teachers have so much power. Most teachers feel like they can influence a student’s ability to achieve success. The ability to set up a challenge, or to give them a task, as a reward, is the same way. If your child gets good grades, you might give him or her a good grade, and then set up a challenge for them.
There are plenty of theories on why some adolescents are better than others at different times in their lives. In the same way that we often see kids who are better at math at the same time as kids who are better at music, it is also possible that when it comes to school, some kids are better than others at the same time. It has to do with expectations. Children raised on a certain level, or on a certain schedule, are typically better prepared to deal with challenging situations.
The problem that is often blamed for the achievement gap in school is the fact that high expectations make it challenging for students to meet. If the expectations are high, it is much easier for children to learn, but also much easier to fail. But children raised on the same kind of expectation are more likely to learn, and their ability to learn improves when they are encouraged to push themselves. This is a trend that has been observed in other fields, from sports to science.
Many psychologists have studied the effect of high expectations at home, and they found that both parents and teachers are key factors. Parents try to instill high expectations for their kids at home, especially with older kids. Teachers try to instill high expectations for their students in school, and this is often where the difference really lies.
For example, in math, high expectations at home result in higher school grades and lower test scores, while high expectations in school result in lower test scores and higher grades. Parents and teachers alike think that their kids’ school performance is much more important than their grade-point average, and this is one of the reasons why high expectations at home actually work.
