Believing Students Can: Math Teacher Efficacy as a Predictor of Teacher Expectations for Student Success

• In Event: Predictors of Student Success in Mathematics Education

Abstract

Teacher expectations contribute to student success in STEM subjects such as mathematics. Understanding factors influencing these expectations, such as teacher efficacy, can inform ways to support all students to thrive in math learning spaces. I utilize a nationally representative data set – Rand 2022 Learn Together Survey (n=1,704) – to explore the relationship between math teacher efficacy and teacher perceptions of students, measured by three teacher expectations dimensions (talent, effort, performance). Using linear probability models to examine each factor, I find that the probability a teacher holds high expectations for student success increases across all three dimensions as efficacy increases. Understanding how teacher efficacy is associated with expectations is a potentially important step toward achieving equitable STEM success.

Author

• Rachel Saperstein McClam, Johns Hopkins University