There is an achievement gap between students of different ethnic groups. An important alterable contributor to academic achievement is teacher expectations—the beliefs teachers hold about their students’ academic capabilities. Teacher expectations affect students’ academic performance—high expectations are associated with higher academic performance and low expectations are associated with lower academic performance. Using a survey, we collected data from 140 teachers at a teacher conference in March 2017. In addition to demographic questions, the survey had two scales that gathered information about teacher expectations and behaviours. Differential item functioning analyses showed that teachers had higher expectations for Asian Canadian students and lower expectations for Indigenous students compared with European Canadian students. Explanatory item response modeling showed teachers with six or more years of teaching experience, and teachers above 35 years old, had higher expectations for their students. Teachers did not report behaving differently towards different groups of students. Therefore, there appears to be a discrepancy between teacher expectations and their reported behaviours toward students from various ethnic groups. Implications for future research include exploring if reported behaviours can be observed in the classroom. In addition, there may be a need to modify teacher expectations within teacher education programs.

中文翻译：

---

成就可能源于教师的期望：检查种族，教学年限和课堂行为的不同影响

不同种族的学生之间存在成就差距。教师的期望是对学习成绩的重要影响因素。教师对学生学习能力的信念。老师的期望会影响学生的学习成绩-高期望与更高的学业成绩相关，而低期望与更低的学业成绩相关。我们使用调查在2017年3月的一次教师会议上从140名教师那里收集了数据。除了人口统计学问题外，该调查还有两个量表，收集有关教师期望和行为的信息。差异项功能分析表明，与欧洲加拿大学生相比，教师对加拿大亚裔学生的期望更高，对土著学生的期望更低。解释性项目反应模型表明，具有六年或六年以上教学经验的老师，以及35岁以上的老师对学生有更高的期望。老师没有举报对不同的学生群体表现不同。因此，在教师的期望与他们对来自不同种族的学生的举报行为之间似乎存在差异。对未来研究的意义包括探索是否可以在课堂上观察到举报的行为。另外，可能需要在教师教育计划中修改教师的期望。