When educator-learner perceptions of instruction diverge: teachers’ perspectives

Figures & data

Table 1. Categories summarising reasons for student-teacher divergence in perception.

Category and sub-category	Definition	Examples (translated from German)	Frequency of (sub)category occurrence (total N segments = 831)	Percentage of total N segments^c
I. Microlevel – Individual circumstances
I.I Sociodemographic factors^a	Sociodemographic factors that influence perceptions and preferences regarding instruction. These may include: age, life experience, puberty-related preferences and behavioural tendencies, family background, educational background. Overlap with other categories is possible; is coded if e.g. age is explicitly given as a reason for behaviours or perceptions.	15-18-year-olds are self-confident, want to determine their world themselves and perceive any rule as a constraint. Due to different parenting styles and less life experience, students often have different perceptions concerning justice, the relevance of certain learning content or their own performance.	85	10%
I.II Motivation^a	Motivation in general concerns the energisation and direction of behaviour (Pintrich 2003). This category includes motivational factors that influence perceptions and preferences regarding instruction. These may include: motivation to attend school; interest in the subject; tendency to avoid effort; teacher’s motivation to involve students in lesson planning. Overlap with “goals” is possible; is coded if motivational factors refer to (more) general conditions and not solely to narrowly defined “goals”.	A lot of students do not necessarily want to be taught anything. They see school as a necessary evil that they have to endure. Teachers are convinced of and interested in their subject. Otherwise, they would not have studied it. Students have to enrol in all subjects.	59	7%
I.III Goals^a	Goals represent desirable future end states (Austin and Vancouver 1996). This category includes concrete goals that influence perceptions and preferences regarding education. Pupils and teachers may have different goals and sometimes conflicting goals. Overlap with “motivation” is possible; is coded if statement specifically refers to goals.	Teachers and students have different goals, and therefore different perceptions of what a successful lesson is. Their goals seem different to me. Teachers are more likely to see long-term goals. Pupils often do not see the significance of the topics because they still lack an overarching perspective. As a result, lessons are perceived differently in the short run.	76	9%
I.IV Affective phenomena^a	Affective phenomena include emotions, moods, and affect dispositions (Scherer 2005). This category includes affective phenomena that influence perceptions and preferences regarding education. These may include: more generally: current mood, (negative) emotions; more specifically: anxiety, fear of change, stress, frustration.	Pupils evaluate a lot of things according to their enjoyment. Their current mood plays a role. Often, students project their emotions onto what happens in the classroom.	23	3%
I.V Cognitive abilities and academic achievement^a	Cognitive ability can be defined as a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience (Gottfredson 1997). Academic achievement is defined as a level of proficiency in scholastic work. This category includes cognitive abilities and academic achievement as factors influencing perceptions and preferences regarding instruction.	In recent years, I noticed that low-achieving students tend to portray their deficits as cool. As soon as they have to make an effort, the exercise is seen as uncool. Good pupils and pupils to be taken seriously will more often agree with the teacher’s opinion. Bad students will often seek to blame teachers for their deficits.	17	2%
I.VI Knowledge and metacognition^b	Metacognition is the awareness of one’s own cognitive processes. This category includes knowledge about favourable teaching and learning processes and ability to plan and monitor processes as factors influencing perceptions and preferences regarding instruction.	In general, students often do not have the competence (since they are not trained in the field) to understand didactic methods. Students rarely have the competence to judge the necessity of the subject matter/exercise.	41	5%
I.VII Perception^a,b
I.VII.a Differing perceptions and misconceptions^a	Different views on the meaning of terms and on ideals concerning instruction, leading to divergence in perception among teachers and students.	I think that freedom is interpreted differently by pupils and teachers. Most of the students understand participation in lesson planning simply as free choice of topic and an easy-going, relaxed lesson.	39	5%
I.VII.b Perception biases^a	Perception biases leading to divergence in perception among teachers and students. These may include: heuristics; contrast effects; confirmation biases; self-serving biases; negativity biases.	Thus, I think that students notice teachers’ rules more, whereas teachers notice the freedoms they provide within the system. Often, both sides try to portray themselves as victims of the other side. I think that it is particularly difficult for teachers who have been working for a long time, to reflect on or evaluate their teaching. Their perception of their own lessons is therefore highly distorted. Of course, as a teacher, you are often convinced that you have now planned a really good lesson. After all, you have invested a lot of time and work.	67	8%
I.VII.c Perspective-taking^b	Lack of perspective-taking on both sides (lack of understanding of roles, needs and duties specific to students/teachers), leading to different expectations among teachers and students.	Students do not know much about legal frameworks, curricula, and the like, and therefore cannot always understand why a teacher must or cannot do some things. I think that teachers are not always able to empathise with young people as much as they believe they can.	57	7%
II. Mesolevel – Interactions
II.I Social aspects^a	Social aspects that influence perceptions and preferences regarding education. These may include: social roles; distribution of power; interactions; other significant people: peers, parents; group dynamics.	Maybe students see their teacher more as an opponent than as an ally. The school system is generally dominated by asymmetrically distributed power (this is also desired by many teachers because it is more comfortable). Of course, the evaluation of lessons is related to one’s (role) position in that hierarchy.	56	7%
II.II Classroom aspects and instructional strategies^a	Class features, characteristics of the classroom environment, and teaching practices that foster or hinder student-teacher divergence in perception. These may include: class size; classroom climate; heterogeneity among pupils; communication & feedback; instructional strategies.	I also noticed that you can never please all students in a class because classes are very heterogeneous. As a teacher you hardly get any feedback. Not from students, fellow teachers or parents. You are usually alone in class and design your instruction as you think best.	125	15%
III. Macrolevel – Contextual factors			75	9%
III.I External environmental factors^a	External environmental factors influencing teaching practices, perceptions, and preferences regarding education. These may include: time constraints; legal requirements; public image of school/education; media influence.	As much as I want to promote autonomy among students, the system’s requirements (standardisation, centralised tasks) force me to do some teaching to the test. If learning and school had a better image, it might not be necessary to constantly justify the subject matter/learning goals and autonomous learning might be more possible.
IV. Miscellaneous categories			111	13%
IV.I Miscellaneous category 1 - Questioning the validity of studies on student-teacher divergence in perception^b	Respondents doubt the validity of scientific findings on student-teacher divergence in perception described in the question.	Surveys often reflect what respondents believe they have to say in order to meet certain expectations. I cannot confirm that finding. Whenever I collected feedback from my students, the results were exactly what I expected.
IV.II Miscellaneous category 2 - Not topic-related^a	Non-topic-related responses.	-

^aCategories built deductively based on findings from the literature.

^bCategories built inductively based on the data.

^cPercentages may not sum to 100, due to rounding.

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