Expletory qualitative research can fill in the gaps in existing theory. For example, research has documented the overarching connection between poverty and low academic achievement. Some researchers have explained this relationship using the self-fulfilling prophecy.
That is, low expectations for poor students help cause their low performance. One researcher took as his goal “to provide an analysis of the factors that are critical in the teacher’s development of expectations for various groups of her pupils and of the process by which such expectations influence the classroom experience for the teacher and the student.” Rist observed one class of children from kindergarten through second grade and then offered a number of general propositions and processes.