The TEP evaluated (for the first time) whether teacher expectations could be raised experimentally and sustained over time. The study measured effects of raised expectations on student academic and social outcomes.

TEP was funded through a Marsden Fast Start Grant and was a three-year project which began in 2011. A grant from the Cognition Institute funded teacher workshops which were the primary component of the intervention.

This three-year project started with 2,500 students and their 90 teachers being recruited from 12 primary schools within Auckland. Teachers in the project were randomly assigned to control or intervention groups. The aim of the first year of the project was to teach the intervention teachers the beliefs and practices of high expectation teachers. Such teachers have large positive effects on their students’ learning and social development. In the second year of the project, the intervention teachers taught the control group teachers the new pedagogical practices they had introduced into their classrooms. The final year of the project involved measuring whether teachers sustained the practices and beliefs of high expectation teachers or whether they reverted to their original ideas. Throughout the project, student social and academic outcomes were measured.

TEP brought together a group of researchers with particular skills of value to the project. It combines experienced and less experienced researchers, those with teaching experience and those without, but all of whom have a passion for enhancing the learning experience of students.

Director:

Professor Christine Rubie-Davies

Principal Investigator:

Dr Elizabeth Peterson

Project Manager:

Dr Penelope Watson

Senior Researchers:

Lynda Garrett
Annaline Flint
Dr Lyn McDonald
Heather O’Neill

Phone: 623 8899 Ext 82974
Fax: 623 8827
Email: c.rubie@auckland.ac.nz or p.watson@auckland.ac.nz

Location

School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice
Faculty of Education and Social Work
University of Auckland – Epsom Campus
Gate 3, 74 Epsom Avenue
Auckland, New Zealand

Postal address

School of Learning, Development and Professional Practice
Faculty of Education and Social Work
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92601, Symonds Street
Auckland, 1150
New Zealand