HOW LOCUS OF CONTROL MODERATES THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED TEACHERS’ EXPECTANCY AND SELF-ESTEEM AMONG HIGH-PERFORMING STUDENTS

Previous studies have shown that students' self-esteem is affected by perceived teachers' expectancy (PTE), which was derived from the students' observation on teachers' classroom behavior. It is also reported that students with higher academic achievements are likely to have higher level of general self-esteem compared to the other students in a school. Those findings were supported by symbolic interaction theory, which explained that PTE serves as a symbol for the high-performing students that they are expected to be better than the others. However, little research has been done in schools where teachers are likely to expect their students to achieve equally high or equally low. Aiming to investigate how locus of control (LoC) moderates the influence PTE on self-esteem, this study was conducted in a high-performance high school in Indonesia, where only students with high previous academic reports are accepted. Eight hundred participants were given three sets of questionnaires including Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Internal Control Index, and Perception of Teachers' Behavior Scale. The results showed that the students' LoC moderated the influence of their PTE on their self-esteem, where higher self-esteem was indicated by students with more internal LoC. In other words, when their teachers have equally similar expectancy towards everyone; students' LoC takes over the role of PTE in forming their self-esteem. This finding leads to knowledge that internalizing students LoC is considered effective to improve students' general self-esteem without jeopardizing their academic achievement. Further practical implications of the findings are discussed at the end of the paper.