This led to the conclusion that teacher expectations, particularly for the youngest children, can influence student achievement.

A further factor in a child's educational attainment involves the school environment, more specifically teacher expectations and attitudes.

Wong's publications provide advice on the improvement of academic instruction, classroom management and teacher expectations of students.

The classroom environment and instruction reflects the clear student and teacher expectations of the school.

He said that such tracking had a devastating effect on teacher expectations for students in slow-learning groups.

Our research has shown that the single most significant factor causing this gap is teacher expectation, regardless of whether the teachers are white or minority!

The Pygmalion effect occurs when students alter their behavior to meet teacher expectations.

Second, he pointed out that various situational and individual difference factors influence the extent to which teacher expectations will act as self-fulfilling prophecies.

As teacher expectation has been shown to influence achievement, we may also need to examine how teachers are socialised into expecting some groups to fail.

Studies have pointed to poverty, mobility, attitudes, teacher expectation, parental involvement and the lack of pre-school experience.