Where Are Your Expectation Gaps?

The accounting firm Accenture has a neat little phrase: “Expectation Gap”. They use the term to explain the phenomenon of returned consumer electronics for one. It has been discovered that only 20% of returned products are actually defective or broken, though the costumer said they were.

Accenture explains that there was an apparent expectation gap which simply means the customer expected that the product would do something but it didn’t or they couldn’t get it to do the thing they wanted it to do. Their solution is to return it.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may already have anticipated what’s coming next. The inevitable question for those of us in Academia-

Where Are Your Expectation Gaps?

I encounter them every day of every year that I teach. Particularly with regard to student behavior. I expect a certain behavior so that each may learn in the classroom. But it doesn’t always turn out that way. The expectation gap is wide with some students and on-existent for others. I wish I could keep the latter and return the former. I know most teachers feel the same way. But students aren’t products (though politicians may think so). We’re not allowed to discard them (thank, goodness!).

So how do you bridge expectation gaps in the classroom? I’m deliberately not answering the question here so that many may comment.

photo by merman at flickr