This study was designed to gain substantial information about how teachers form initial impressions of pupils. The particular aim was to examine the relative influence of speech style, physical appearance, and written work on judgments about pupils on a wide range of classroom personality and cognitive variables. Teaching experience emerged as a key rater variable. The results indicated that, for raters in general, pupil voice was a strong discriminator on variables pertaining more narrowly to the child as a learner in the classroom, and was a significant influence on judgments about intelligence and likely success as a pupil.
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