An investigation into the relationship between students' statements and perceptions of their success and failure and their teachers' expectations about their achievement generally but specifically in English language

This participatory case study makes an in-depth investigation of one of the oldest junior secondary schools
in south Trinidad. Prior to the historical intervention
of the JSS system the majority of the school's rural catchment population never had access to secondary school education. As a result, the taken-for-granted notion that emerged was that the students who attended the school were prospective failures. This research therefore attempts to find out if there is a relationship between the Form Three JSS students' perceptions and statements of the reasons for their success or failure and their
teachers' expectations about their academic achievement generally and especially in English Language. The
students' perceptions were ascertained from a randomly selected sample of 300 Form Three students/graduates who made ascriptions to a causal attribution questionnaire on the immediate receipt of their 14+ English Language Examination results. Their statements were determined through observations, role-play, vignettes, exit questionnaires, interviews of 4 groups of 12 students and interviews of a further stratified selected sub-sample of 6 students, one male and one female who represented the range of successful, average and low academic achievement levels and who provided more in-depth study. The teachers' expectations were revealed
through observation of their interactions and engagement with the students, interviews and a questionnaire about their expectations. Frequency values, correlation and
triangulation of the teachers' expectations and
students' responses, statements and perceptions were made The findings were robust. The students, especially those with average to good academic potentials perceived that the teachers significantly impacted negatively on their performance. The perceptions of the students who failed revealed significant relationships with their inability/perception of their grades received and double awarded significant relationships with their difficulty of the task and their lack of effort expended to which the teachers acquiesced with the latter. However, the students said that the teachers showed no concern and interest in them. They were often late, uncooperative, not helpful, biased and boring. 64.5% of
the teachers admitted that they never helped the students. They also felt that the students were difficult to teach and that they would most likely fall into trouble with the law. The teachers had very low expectations for the students' academic future.