Teacher Perceptions of Students' Academic Competence and Problem Behaviors: Does Awareness of Student Difficulties Influence Instructional Time?

Authors: Jessica R. Toste, Carol M. Connor, Peng Peng, Lisa Anne Didion
Presented at 2017 AERA

​Abstract: Teachers have many sources of information on their students' academic performance. The present study investigated associations between teacher perceptions of students’ skills (academic and behavioral) and the time spent in small-group reading instruction with these students. Amongst first and third graders, we sought to explore three questions: (1) To what extent do teachers’ perceptions of students’ academic competence predict the amount of instructional time that students receive?; (2) Is this relation moderated by teacher perceptions of students’ problem behaviors?; and (3) How do teacher characteristics influence this pattern of results? Multilevel modeling was conducted, and an interesting pattern of findings emerged across first and third grade samples. Findings will be discussed in relation to teachers’ use of data-based decision making