Teacher Expectations: Private vs Public Education, Essay Example

Introduction 

Teaching is indeed considered to be one of the noblest professions in the world today. Having the capacity to extend one’s being to affect that of the others is such a compelling process that makes teachers rather the foundation of any growing society. There is even an implicative belief that communities with excellent teachers often come out to be like those of their existing mentors. True, with such responsibility and work that the teachers do, they also establish a strong influence upon their students’ minds. Relatively, what makes such influence a lot stronger is the expectation that the teachers have on their students. In the discussion that follows, understanding how such point of expectation affect the quality of education that the students receive and the behavior that they develop as individuals shall be better analyzed. Such analysis shall be based on the comparison of expectations that educators have as they teach in public versus private learning institutions.

The Meaning of Teacher Expectation

Self-standard; this is what makes up teacher expectation. Through the years of serving several generations of students, teachers often develop the capacity to oversee what they should expect among their students even before the school year begins. Most often than not, because of intuitive understanding of student behavior, the teacher are close to perfection when it comes to seeing such possibilities among their students. Their capability to see through the behavior of their students, which they usually develop through experience, allows them to understand and accept the fact that there are some students who are fast in grasping the lessons, while there will always be those who might have a hard time coping up. As if profiling their students’ capability of learning through intuitive instinct, teachers often find a way to define what to expect among particular students in their class. Positive or not though, such expectations have a way of affecting the way they reach out to the learners and teacher their students about the lessons that they are required to present them with. The level of enthusiasm often changes based on such expectations thus also making instinctive impact on how the students are able to perform and learn under the mentorship of their instructors.

The Point of Difference

When it comes to measuring teacher expectation depending on the type of institution they are teaching in, the consequences of comparison could still be based on student behavior. Students in public schools could actually be classified into two types, one is the group of students who work hard to earn the mark and the other is the group of students who simply go with the flow. On the other end, students from private schools could be categorized into two classifications as well, one being the group of achievers and the other being the group of the happy-go-lucky individuals who simply have the money to stay in school.

Relatively, in both types of learning institutions, there exist some students who are self-driven and are able to go through the challenges with flying colors because of the efforts they put forth. Teachers recognize the fact that this type of students do exist. However, they also recognize the fact that there are those who just stay in class because they have to. Of course, educators would rather want to teach those who are really eager to learn, those who have established their personal goals and purpose in learning. However, the teachers have no choice but to share such enthusiasm with that of those who are just in the classrooms because they have to be in there as required by their parents and as required by the law. The only question is, which type of student group dominates the classes that are present in private and public schools? Most often than not, private schools have a more evident group of intellectual individuals who are willing and are eager to learn, whereas in public schools, the ratio is quite the opposite [especially that in the public institutions, almost 70% are simply in schools due to compulsory reasons]. In response to this, the teachers in private institutions are more enthusiastic in teaching, thus expecting their students to grasp the subject well. On the other end, teacher-expectation among educators in public schools have lesser level of enthusiasm as they specifically try to balance what they expect from their students so as to support the learning process that every student is able to cope up with [especially when the system follows an inclusive system of teaching].

Conclusion

Students ought to be taught well as they expect to be. Nevertheless, the level of enthusiasm that the students could get from the teachers would completely depend on how well they are able to reach the standards of their mentors. The pre-expectations of teachers between students coming from private and public institutions play a great role on how they are able to accomplish their responsibility of providing their students with the most vital lessons that they ought to learn about life. Although it is important for teachers to never be bias in treating their students, it is sometimes hard not to give attention to those who are actually giving importance to reaching the standards that they have set for their learners to accomplish. This is perhaps the reason why teachers in private schools are most often than not more extensive in preparing for their students’ lessons as they are expecting more from these individuals while teachers in public schools have no choice, but to keep their expectations at a balance, thus at some point affecting their enthusiasm in performing their duties of teaching.

Works Cited

Huitt, W. (2000, August). Teacher efficacy. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/teacher/tcheff.html. . (Retrieved on October 12, 2013).

Spiegel, A. (2012). Teachers’ Expectations Can Influence How Students Perform. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/09/18/161159263/teachers-expectations-can-influence-how-students-perform. (Retrieved on October 12, 2013).

Stipeck, D. (2010). How Do Teachers’ Expectations Affect Student Learning. http://www.education.com/reference/article/teachers-expectations-affect-learning/. (Retrieved on October 12, 2013).