This book is about the kinds of individual differences in students that make differential impressions on teachers, the ways that such differential impressions lead teachers to form differential attitudes and expectations regarding different students, and the ways that these differential teacher attitudes and expectations begin to affect teacher-student interaction patterns. Attention is focused on several interrelated investigations by the authors and their colleagues, although the general literature relevant to these topics is reviewed and discussed. In the first chapter evidence is cited showing that teachers behave quite differently toward different students in their classrooms, and that the treatment of some students is so consistently inappropriate as to erode their general confidence and aspirations. To understand the psychological impact of schooling on individual students, it is necessary to observe teachers and students during their day-to-day activities in schools. This book brings together much of the psychological research that has been conducted in classroom settings, and in particular almost all of the available research on intraclass group and individual differences among students as they affect classroom interaction patterns. (Author/JM)