Students often receive feedback that conveys expectations linked to their socioeconomic background
As a university student studying psychology, I observed classrooms in a local elementary school to learn more about teacher feedback. On one occasion, an 11-year-old boy named Mark received a six out of 10 on a test he had taken a week earlier. In response to his disappointment, the boy’s teacher said, “It’s okay, Mark—not everyone has to be an Einstein.”
Even well-intentioned educators may unknowingly send discouraging messages to children from disadvantaged backgrounds. In recent research, my colleague Constantine Sedikides, a social psychologist at the University of Southampton in England, and I have drawn on multiple studies to examine this problem and have shown how these messages can become ingrained in children’s mind.
That pattern has been observed in many countries, including the U.S. While this socioeconomic bias can intersect with biases against race and ethnicity, it is clearly an additional powerful factor that shapes children’s educational experience. A study in the U.K. found that when teachers evaluate their students’ work, they tend to give lower grades to those from a poorer background, even when these students perform as well as their peers.
These inadvertently denigrating messages may, over time, become ingrained in children’s mind. As I and others have found, children from a lower socioeconomic background tend to have more negative views about themselves. They see themselves as less intelligent, less able to grow their intelligence, less deserving and less worthy—even if they are as smart and high-achieving as others.
In response, societies need to address the entrenched issues—such as the belief in meritocracy—that pervade our educational system. To do so, we can promote socioeconomic desegregation in schools and improve the social integration of children from different backgrounds. Such changes would render inequality of opportunity more visible to children, parents, teachers and policymakers.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
Republicans and Democrats share blame for the speaker fiascoIf you vote for a face-eating leopard, expect it to eat your face.
Lire la suite »
My Daughter Was Bullied About Her Halloween Costume at a Friend’s House. Apparently, the Mother Joined In.Parenting advice on Halloween bullies, unequal wedding gifts, and adoption reunions.
Lire la suite »
Program paying users to stay clean in the South Bay is working, drug-treatment clinic saysParticipants get tested twice a week, and if they've been drug-free, they earn $10 per test in credits toward any retail store
Lire la suite »
Unlocking pathways to break down problem proteins presents new treatment opportunitiesWhen targeting problem proteins involved in causing or spreading disease, a drug will often clog up a protein's active site so it can't function and wreak havoc.
Lire la suite »
Phenotype-Targeted Treatment Sought for Psoriatic DiseaseResearchers described ongoing work to 'understand the discrete and overlapping endotypes that underlie the phenotypes' of psoriatic disease and to develop a diagnostic test for psoriatic arthritis.
Lire la suite »
Biden requesting $310M to fix, expand wastewater treatment plant fouling San Diego’s South CountyThe money is part of a $56 billion emergency supplemental funding request that faces an uncertain fate in Congress.
Lire la suite »