Preservice teachers' expectations about the first year of teaching

“Unrealistic optimism,” a construct used in health psychology, provided a framework for examining preservice teachers' expectations about teaching. Subjects showed a consistent tendency to believe that they would experience less difficulty than the “average first-year teacher” on 33 different teaching tasks. This optimistic bias was significantly greater for tasks perceived to be under the teacher's control and for tasks dealing with organization and management. Implications for teacher education and for the prevention of “reality shock” are discussed.