Teachers rather quickly form expectancies about their pupils. These expectancies lead to differences in teacher behaviors that, in turn, lead pupils to develop selfexpectations similar to those of their teachers and then to academic performance that fulfills these expectations. Teachers who believe they are interacting with bright students smile and nod their heads more often than teachers interacting with slow students. Teachers lean toward bright students and looked bright students in the eyes more frequently.
Teachers are more supportive and friendly toward bright students.
Many nonverbal behaviors associated with positive emotional attraction are displayed by teachers most frequently in interactions with students believed to be bright. Teachers wait less time for low ex pectation students to answer, gave up more quickly on their wrong answers, called on them less often, paid less attention to them except when they mis behaved, and placed their seats farthest from the teacher. Teachers tend to stay with high achievers longer after they have failed to answer a question. Teachers offer high achievers more praise, less criticism, more repetitions of information and more clues than low achievers. Teachers offer more rephrasing of questions when high achievers answer incorrectly than when low achievers answer incorrectly.