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The Environment Shapes A Poor Student 's Academic Success

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In the previous section, I discussed how the environment shapes a poor student’s academic success. However, the teacher’s attitude toward the cognitive capabilities of their students also plays a major role in shaping a student’s learning. A teacher with low expectations for their students and reluctance to take responsibility for all students can contribute to low achievement (Halvorsen, 2009). In low-income schools, research has shown that the dedication a teacher displays to their student, especially to the idea of responsibility, is associated with how much their students will learn (Lee & Smith, 1996). 
 Responsibility Among Teachers and its Effects on Student Achievement Lee and Smith (1996) describe responsible teaching as the …show more content…

Such teachers respond to “failure as a challenge, requiring the students to redo failed work (with individualized help from the teachers as needed) rather than writing the students off or referring them to remedial classes” (Brophy, 1983, p. 642). Showing all students that they are capable of completing a difficult task, regardless of how long it may take them to grasp it, is the best way to instill a sense of personal responsibility. 
 Responsible Teaching for Low-Income Populations Teachers’ understanding and expectations for student learning is highly influenced by the context of the schools in which they teach. Schools that operate at any level which have a higher population of low-income students typically show decreased standards for responsibility in educational staff as a whole (Lee & Smith, 1996). Teachers in schools that have a high rate of low-income students producing low achievement scores are much more likely to give up on their students (Brookover, Schweitzer, Schneider, Beady, Flood, & Wisenbaker, 1978), when this is the population that teachers need to take the most responsibility when it comes to student learning and growth. Leland and Harste (2005) emphasize that educators who teach children from backgrounds of poverty

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