Expectancies, learning anxiety, and students’ achievement

ABSTRACT

This paper attempts to estimate the relationships between teachers’ and parents’ expectancies and students’ achievement in mathematics and literacy as measured by matriculation exam scores and final marks in the 12th-grade. Furthermore, it was examined whether these links are mediated by students’ self-expectancies and their mathematics and literacy anxiety. The hypothesised direct and indirect links were tested using structural equation modelling based on data gathered in a cross-sectional study (n = 479). The exam scores in mathematics and literacy were directly related only to parents’ expectancies, in contrast to mathematics and literacy marks which were directly related only to teachers’ expectancies. Moreover, students’ self-expectancies acted as a positive, while mathematics and literacy anxiety acted as a negative regulator of the links between significant others’ expectancies and students’ outcomes in both subjects. The findings were discussed in the light of theories and results of studies concerning teachers’ and parents’ expectancy effects.

KEYWORDS:

• Teachers’ expectancies
• parents’ expectancies
• students’ self-expectancies
• students’ anxiety
• students’ achievement
• mathematics and literacy

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sławomir Trusz

Sławomir Trusz, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the WSB University, Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland. His leading areas of interest are the effects of intra- and interpersonal expectancies and educational self-fulfilling prophecy mechanisms. He co-authored the book Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Expectancies (Routledge, 2016).