教师期望某些学生的某些行为，而这些期望通过互动与学生沟通时，实际上可以产生这些行为。 这称为“教师预期效果”。例如，如果白人教师期望黑人学生在数学测试中的表现低于白人学生，那么随着时间的流逝，老师可能会采取行动鼓励黑人学生表现不佳。 从马克思关于工人与资本主义之间关系的理论出发，教育的冲突理论方法考察了教育机构和学位水平的等级制度如何促进社会等级制度和不平等现象的再现。
Teachers expect certain behaviors from certain students, and these expectations can actually produce these behaviors when communicating with students through interaction. This is called the “expected teacher effect.” For example, if white teachers expect black students to perform worse than white students on math tests, then over time, teachers may take action to encourage black students to perform poorly. Starting from Marx’s theory on the relationship between workers and capitalism, the conflict theory method of education examines how the hierarchical system of educational institutions and degree levels can promote the reproduction of social hierarchical systems and inequality.