High-expectation comments increase students’ mental activity and confidence in the test

Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia, USA

^a Corresponding author: ywang22@episcopalhighschool.org

Abstract

Past research has consistently found that teachers’ expectations for students’ performance shape their long-term academic success. This study extends this work by examining possible short-term pathways through which instructors’ test-related expectations may influence their academic success, specifically students’ confidence, mental activity and immediate test score performance. It was hypothesized that after receiving high- expectation encouragement, students would have experience greater confidence, superior immediate test performance, and stronger gamma waves (i.e., brain waves that indicate more intense mental activity). To test these hypotheses, an experiment was conducted with nine students from Guangxi, China. Results showed that students who received high-expectation comments tended to generate stronger EEG gamma waves and experience higher levels of confidence. However, no relationship was found between the expressed expectation and students’ test scores. Future experiments with a larger participant pool can build upon the preliminary outcomes of my study.