Classroom context, teacher expectations, and cognitive level: Predicting children's math ability judgments

•We report a new observational tool for measuring Classroom Ability-based Practices.•We examined predictive factors for first grade children's self-judgments in math.•Child and teacher ratings were more congruent in highly differentiated classrooms.•Classroom context moderated the relations between cognitive level and ability ratings.•Findings extend work on social and cognitive factors shaping ability judgments.

Classroom practices that make ability differences salient communicate differential teacher expectations for students. This study reports on a new observational tool for measuring Classroom Ability-based Practices (CAP) and explores how young children's self-perceptions of ability in mathematics are related to their teachers' expectations for them and to their cognitive reasoning skills in classrooms that vary in usage of such ability-differentiated practices. The sample consisted of 193 children and their teachers in 15 first grade classrooms. The CAP was a reliable measure of ability-based differential teacher treatment and showed criterion validity as a moderator variable in predicting children's ability perceptions. In highly ability-differentiating classrooms, children's self-ratings were more congruent with teachers' expectations of students' mathematics ability. Also in highly ability-differentiating classrooms, higher cognitive levels predicted lower self-ability ratings in math. These findings extend our understanding of the social and cognitive factors that shape young children's self-judgments of math competence.