The growing heterogeneity in classrooms is important in order to include all pupils (United Nations, 2006), but may be challenging for teachers: For instance, teachers need to assess the heterogeneous learning prerequisites of their students to make pedagogical and didactic choices, all while monitoring ongoing learning progress in their day-to-day teaching activities (Helmke & Weinert, 2021). Especially when teachers’ motivation and cognitive resources are low, teachers’ biases may come into play more frequently. Research confirms this and shows that teachers tend to use more heuristic judgement processes in these kinds of situations (Krolak-Schwerdt et al., 2013, 2018).

However, not all pupils are the same; some pupils are more at risk than others when it comes to teachers’ possible biases. Empirical evidence suggests that pupils with special educational needs and pupils with different ethnicities are often subject to biased teacher judgements (Glock et al., 2020). It is therefore crucial to look especially at those groups of pupils in order to examine possible mechanisms as a first step towards a more equitable and inclusive classroom. Thus, this symposium aims to contribute to the understanding of teachers’ perceptions, biases and expectations from an international perspective. To this end, the various contributions address questions that focus on the content of teacher biases as well as on the effects of these biases on teacher behavior:

In the first study from Luxembourg by Pit-ten Cate & Krischler, the focus is on teacher’s warmth and competence expectations and emotions concerning students with special educational needs. It investigates how these expectations and emotions vary based on specific special educational needs characteristics, namely learning difficulties and challenging behaviour. Results show differences between in-service and pre-service teachers when it comes to warmth and competence as well as between different special educational needs when it comes to teachers’ emotions.

The second study from Germany by Glock et al. explores the impact of social behaviour information on pre-service teachers' judgments and feelings of resignation. Pre-service teachers were presented with vignettes on pupils’ social behaviour, either positive or negative, and judged these pupils’ academic performance and learning behaviour. Results show that information, especially unusual negative information, biases the judgement.

The third study from the United States by Garcia Coppersmith et al. shifts the focus to racial-ethnic biases in teacher’ responses to pupils’ novel ideas in a mathematics lesson. By assessing how teachers react to online scenarios with pupils of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, the study shows that teachers found the same math task to be more difficult for Black and Latinx/e pupils. Furthermore, teachers’ language was biased as a function of the students’ race/ethnicity, for example in the topics the teachers discussed with the student.

The fourth study from Germany by Schell et al. adds another layer to the understanding of (future) teachers’ biases by examining stereotypes among pre-service teachers in the context of inclusion. Focusing on autistic pupils and pupils with Down syndrome, the research investigates the relationships between pre-service teachers' stereotypes, diagnostic processes, and decisions using an online simulation. This study aims to uncover how stereotypes may affect the inclusion of students with special educational needs in educational settings. Preliminary results show the existence of stereotypes as well as biased judgements.

Collectively, these studies highlight the important role teachers play in shaping pupils’ experiences while looking at the topic from an international angle. The findings highlight the need for strategies to address these found biases that may contribute to educational inequalities.

Glock, S., Kleen, H., Krischler, M., & Pit-ten Cate, I. (2020). Die Einstellungen von Lehrpersonen gegenüber Schüler*innen ethnischer Minoritäten und Schüler*innen mit sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf: Ein Forschungsüberblick. In S. Glock & H. Kleen (Eds.), Stereotype in der Schule (pp. 225–279). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-27275-3_8 Helmke, A., & Weinert, F. E. (2021). Unterrichtsqualität und Lehrerprofessionalität: Diagnose, Evaluation und Verbesserung des Unterrichts (8. Auflage). Klett / Kallmeyer. Krolak-Schwerdt, S., Böhmer, M., & Gräsel, C. (2013). The impact of accountability on teachers’ assessments of student performance: A social cognitive analysis. Social Psychology of Education, 16(2), 215–239. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-013-9215-9 Krolak-Schwerdt, S., Pit-ten Cate, I. M., & Hörstermann, T. (2018). Teachers’ Judgments and Decision-Making: Studies Concerning the Transition from Primary to Secondary Education and Their Implications for Teacher Education. In O. Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, M. Toepper, H. A. Pant, C. Lautenbach, & C. Kuhn (Eds.), Assessment of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education (pp. 73–101). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74338-7_5 United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. OHCHR. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-persons-disabilities