Studies show that teachers’ implicit attitudes can lead to students being judged differently based on non-performance-related characteristics (e.g. Costa et al. 2022). In order to reduce this influence, it is important that teachers develop an awareness of their propensity to be biased (Bias Awareness, Perry et al. 2015). In the German context, studies show that the bias awareness of student teachers is rather moderate (Bonefeld 2022). Since individuals tend to evaluate their own abilities, characteristics or personality traits more favorably than those of an average peer—a cognitive bias known as the Better-Than-Average-Effect (Zell et al. 2020)—and are also prone to underestimating their own susceptibility to be biased (Howell and Ratliff 2017), this study investigates how student teachers evaluate the impact of implicit bias on their own behavior compared to that of an average peer. In two correlational studies student teachers were therefore asked how they evaluate the impact of implicit bias on their own teaching and student assessment and, in comparison, on other student teachers and in-service teachers. The student teachers were also asked to comment their self evaluations and their evaluation of an average peer. Student teachers rated the impact of implicit bias on themselves significantly lower than on the average peer, both in teaching and in student assessment. This discrepancy was also evident in the qualitative analysis. The findings also indicated that higher levels of bias awareness were linked to greater perceived influence of implicit bias on oneself and on an average peer.
