Be aware of your own prejudices

Prejudices are beliefs or ideas about people who belong to a particular group. These are also called stereotypical images. Everyone has unconscious assumptions about others, even if this is not their intention. You often do not even know that you have prejudices. At school, prejudices can lead you to have low expectations of some students. Research shows that teachers more often have low expectations of students with a migration background or with a support need, such as dyslexia. To become aware of your prejudices, you can discuss how you view your students, for example with a colleague. The following tools can help with this:

Teach from a position of high expectations: 4 tips

During lessons, as a teacher you estimate what all students are capable of. If you have high expectations of all students, you assume that every student can develop and grow. This has a positive effect on students. They learn better when they feel and experience that they are trusted. Here are four tips for teaching from a position of high expectations:

1. Challenge all your students in terms of the amount and difficulty of the subject matter

To offer all students choices in learning experiences and learning activities, you can have students work in different group compositions. It is important to monitor what the group composition does for each individual student. Are the students being sufficiently challenged, or would it be better to adjust the groups?

2. Give all students time to think about a question and help them find an answer

There are various ways to give all students the opportunity to formulate an answer. One well-known method is the use of mini-whiteboards, so that all students write down an answer and hold it up at the same time. This prevents students who take a little longer to arrive at an answer, or who do not dare to speak up in the group, from getting less opportunity to participate. You can also monitor the answers all the children formulate and see at a glance which children still need attention.

3. Give substantive feedback focused on your students' learning process

To help students with their learning process, it is useful to indicate in your feedback to all students what is already going well, what they can continue to work on, and to give tips or instructions on how they can progress.

4. Be warm and friendly toward all students in your non-verbal communication

This shows that you have high expectations of all students. For example, when students enter the classroom is an excellent opportunity to make personal contact with every student, even if only briefly.

Read more on the page The influence of teacher expectations

Create an environment in which students feel at home

When the classroom is a safe environment, students can grow in self-confidence and begin to learn. To ensure that all students feel at home at school, it is important as a teacher to be aware of the different worlds from which students come to school. Students may be taught different customs, norms and values at home than those at school. Therefore, work on an environment of engagement, in which there is active interest in the lives of all students. You can do this, for example, by paying attention to cultural holidays or by having all students bring an object from home that is important to them and discussing it with the class.

Read more on the page What is inequality of opportunity in education?