“I am Building a Cathedral” - Setting and Maintaining High Expectations

Introduction: The Pygmalion Effect

“While walking, a traveller came across three stonecutters and asked each of them what they were doing. The first replied, "I am making a living." The second kept on hammering and replied, "I am doing the best job of stone cutting in the entire country." The third stopped, looked up at the traveller with a visionary gleam in his eye, and said, “I am building a cathedral.”

Alex Quigley 

The power of high expectations has been researched extensively and its benefits applied in fields ranging from sports coaching to the military, healthcare to the corporate world; however, the education sector has perhaps benefited most from the growing body of evidence demonstrating that pupils often rise, or fall, to the expectations placed upon them. In classrooms globally, the beliefs teachers hold about their learners continue to shape motivation, behaviour, achievement, and ultimately life chances.

But when and how did this begin?

In their 1968 study, ‘Pygmalion in the Classroom’, psychologists Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson showed that performance can be positively or negatively influenced by the expectations of others. The phenomenon, known as the observer-expectancy effect, explained how children’s academic performance was enhanced by teachers’ high expectations, but diminished if teachers were led to expect lower performance.

While the study has faced criticism for its reliance on questionable IQ scores and its lack of replicability, it has remained a cornerstone of future research, teacher training programmes, and academic policies ever since the 1960s. For example, Carol Dweck’s research on growth mindset used the Pygmalion effect as a springboard, Doug Lemov devoted a chapter of his bestselling Teach Like a Champion to its practicalities in the classroom, and the Department for Education established it as the first Teacher Standard in 2012. Indeed, other researchers have since reiterated the notion that when teachers have high expectations for their pupils, their outcomes are better (Murdock-Perriera & Sedlacek, 2018; Hattie, 2008; Rubie Davis et al, 2014). The benefits of high expectations in the classroom have become so widespread that even pupils are now aware of its importance; for instance, Noah, our T&L Prefect explained:

“When I feel that my teacher expects more from me, it feels far more appropriate to push myself academically to the level that is expected … this then carries into my own independent work, because I find that my own expectations of the quality of my work will increase as the expectations of those around me increase.”

'Teacher Standard 1: Set High Expectations, That Inspire, Motivate and Challenge Pupils'

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few people engage in it.” 

Henry Ford

Teacher Standard 1, as established by the DfE in 2012

Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, shared these words in a 1928 essay in the San Francisco Chronicle, where he emphasised that true, critical analysis takes real discipline, as people naturally take the path of least resistance when it comes to thinking. This cognitive laziness is an observation made by teachers of their pupils globally. However, it is perhaps also an accurate commentary on our own tendency to ‘rinse and repeat’ last year’s resources and approaches, or avoid the additional effort required to push pupils beyond the textbook. 

This is no doubt why the Department for Education decided to make high expectations their first of eight Teacher's Standards when they were created in 2012; first in terms of importance, and first in the process of delivering high-quality teaching.

But what are the tangible and measurable benefits of setting high expectations for pupils? This is a question I asked of our Professional Studies group last week, and they generated a comprehensive list of outcomes, despite their relative inexperience in the classroom:

• Higher academic results – often the elephant in the room, but the most common measure of whether pupils have been challenged to fulfil or exceed their potential

• A ‘buzzier’ classroom – the overall impact on pupil engagement, as seen in learning walks and rewards/sanctions data

• Accessing advanced material – such as GCSE pupils exploring A Level concepts, and so on

• Greater pupil motivation and participation – leading to increased GCSE/A Level/degree numbers, improved pupil voice, and participation in academic societies

• Improved teacher satisfaction – teachers will feel a positive sense of challenge and a mutual respect for their pupils, as identified in the Teacher Standard

The outdated approach to learning objectives led to lower expectations

Given these clear, positive outcomes, why is it not the case that all teachers establish and maintain these high expectations for their pupils? Well, the unfortunate thing is, we often think we are. Over a decade of teacher training programmes and professional development urged us to stretch ‘the top end’, with differentiation strategies such as extension tasks and phased scaffolding becoming commonplace. Teachers were encouraged to provide lesson objectives according to ‘all, most, some’, with a view that we were successfully motivating pupils to strive to eventually become the academically able minority.

However, all this approach achieved was providing an opportunity for teachers and pupils to subconsciously lower their expectations. These tiered learning objectives and differentiated activities required teachers to make predictions about future development based on present attainment, ultimately determining students’ academic ability (Dixon, 2002). What is even more concerning is the fact that these approaches became commonplace in all phases of education, resulting in the stunted development of children from early years through to Key Stage Five.

Fortunately, further education research and greater engagement with it has led to a shift from these differentiated practices to ‘adaptive teaching’ – the idea that we must establish high expectations that stretch all pupils, regardless of their academic ability, learning support needs, or social backgrounds. This second bullet point from the Teacher Standard 1, seemingly missed or ignored previously, is now at the heart of modern approaches to teaching and learning.

What Does This Look Like in the Classroom?

For Tom Sherrington, the first hurdle is for teachers to consider whether their preconceptions and biases about their pupils’ academic abilities are accurate, or whether they could aim higher. He explains that:

‘If we establish that we expect high standards and reinforce them continually with tight routines in lessons characterised by rigour, depth, drive and a clear sense of purpose, that is what we get’.

This not only results in more challenging interactions in the classrooms, such as through questioning and feedback, but also in the work we set. For example, he described how the first piece of Science homework his child received in Year 7 asked: ‘What is the difference between science and philosophy?’ An extremely challenging question for an 11-year-old, but one that could capture their imagination and, ultimately, stretch them. How many of us would be bold enough to ask this of our own pupils in week one? Noah, our T&L prefect, echoed the importance of teachers setting pupils challenging tasks, even if it puts them outside of their comfort zone:

“I remember I used to get nervous before presenting to an audience. However, I decided that I would put myself in front of the classroom as much as possible. That year, I remember giving presentations in Biology, Economics and Spanish. At first, this was motivated by high expectations within the classroom, but then the more I did it, the more I enjoyed it and became more self-motivated. Now, I regularly present on lots of different topics, and I really enjoy it.”

In Teach Like a Champion, Doug Lemov highlights five techniques that teachers can use to set and maintain high expectations in their classrooms:

One final strategy comes from Mary Myatt, who reminds teachers of the importance of ‘beautiful work’.

“A few questions: do we provide enough opportunities for our pupils to produce beautiful work? Do they have the chance to polish and refine something? Are they clear about what good work looks like? Have they been inspired by the finished work of others? How often do pupils get the chance to produce work for a real audience? Are there opportunities for multiple drafts, punctuated with honest and specific feedback? The schools which do this are providing their pupils with something important - authentic work of high quality, something that pupils can be proud of.”

This is something our colleagues in the Creative and Technical Arts are experts in. Lucy and her team take pupils from script to stage through an iterative process of table reads, blocking, dress rehearsals, and a final filmed performance. Pupils in Art have scrapbooks showing the design process from sketch to canvas, while Sport and Music stress the importance of repeated practice before a high-quality showcase of pupils’ physical or musical talents. But how often does this exist in other academic areas? By shifting ourselves to a mentality of drafting and improvement, pupils will soon follow suit, and the academic outcomes could be significant. 

Returning to Quigley's three stonecutters, the overall challenge for teachers is to help pupils see beyond the immediate task in front of them. Completing a homework task, redrafting an essay, mastering a mathematical problem, or rehearsing a presentation are not isolated acts. They are the bricks from which confidence and expertise are built. Our role is to help pupils recognise the cathedral they are constructing and to maintain the belief that they are capable of building it.