The roles that students’ ethnicity and achievement levels play in teachers’ choice of learning materials in online teaching: evidence from two experimental studies

Research has shown that, in general, students are treated differently on the basis of their achievement levels and ethnicity. Such differential treatment might also result in the administration of different learning materials, and so far, not much is known about how teachers choose these materials for different students. In two vignette studies, we investigated which student factors influence teachers’ choice of materials. In Study 1, preservice teachers were asked to choose between an easy or difficult instructional video with the same content in response to vignettes that differed by students’ ethnic minority or majority background. In Study 2, preservice teachers could choose between text or video materials with the same content. The student descriptions varied systematically in achievement (high vs. low) and ethnic background (minority vs. majority). The results of Study 1 showed that ethnic minority background students were significantly more often given the easy video than ethnic majority background students. In Study 2, the results showed that student achievement was the crucial factor. Low-achieving students were given the video significantly more often, whereas high-achieving students were more often given the text. Both studies provide initial insights into how teachers’ material choice might be influenced by student characteristics.