Reach for the stars! You can do anything you set your mind to! The sky is the limit! We've all heard these phrases before, and we've probably uttered them ourselves when trying to encourage or motivate others. Many young people get fed a healthy diet of these encouraging words.
As we approach the start of the new academic year, perhaps it's time we revisit our messages. Aspirations and expectations are often conflated but very different. The former is what we want to happen, and the latter is what we expect will happen. Sometimes these two ideas align, but very often they do not. Although most students will express both high aspirations and high expectations, this doesn't necessarily translate into student success. We have a tendency to let our aspirations have an outsized impact on our expectations. Survey your students at the beginning of the semester about the grade they expect to receive and you'll see what I mean.
However, when we express high expectations of our students, especially at the beginning of the semester, it does tend to lead to better outcomes and increased learning. Additionally, identifying those students with lower aspirations and expectations and intervening to shift those mindsets has the potential to positively influence outcomes. This means building relationships with our students as individuals.
Our aspirations reflect our hopes and desires. Our expectations reflect the actual belief and confidence in reaching those desires. If these ideas formed in a vacuum, then we'd be set. Unfortunately, external factors often have a strong impact on our hopes and desires, and ultimately our belief in what's possible. Cultural forces and oppressive dynamics often influence hopes and desires, and lead to a mismatch and ultimately a loss of talent. This is true of diminished aspirations and inflated expectations. When we begin to consider the impact of these external forces, we have a stronger likelihood of being able to move the needle.
There may not be a perfect balance between aspirations and expectations. However, we are better off ourselves and we serve others more effectively when we can help to couple high hopes with reasonable outcomes.
ReferencesBoxer, P., Goldstein, S. E., DeLorenzo, T., Savoy, S., & Mercado, I. (2011). Educational aspiration-expectation discrepancies: Relation to socioeconomic and academic risk-related factors. Journal of Adolescence (London, England.), 34(4), 609-617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2010.10.002
Clair, R. S., & Benjamin, A. (2011). Performing desires: The dilemma of aspirations and educational attainment. British Educational Research Journal, 37(3), 501-517. https://doi.org/10.1080/01411926.2010.481358
Hanson, S. L. (1994). Lost Talent: Unrealized Educational Aspirations and Expectations among U.S. Youths. Sociology of Education, 67(3), 159-183. https://doi.org/10.2307/2112789