Teacher Expectancy Effect free essay sample

In other words, when a teacher stereotypes or makes an unreliable generalization about a student, she may then act based on that stereotype. This hence results in the false generalization becoming an accurate and true one. The teacher’s ‘prophecy’ is therefore fulfilled by the teacher herself. This is self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, the labelling theory is one defined as the condition as to â€Å"how a person comes to be labelled as deviant or to accept that label† (Schaefer amp; Lamm, 1995, p. 187). Labelling theory is one that is frequently encountered in criminology. The theory â€Å"attempts to explain why certain people are viewed as deviants†¦while others†¦are not seen in such harsh terms†. Thus, it emphasizes more on the response towards behaviour, rather than the act categorizes people as being deviant. So, some prefers to call this theory as the societal-reaction approach (Schaefer amp; Lamm, 1995). This section of the paper would attempt to discuss on the few different case studies involving the teacher-expectancy effect before giving the pedagogical approaches linked to this approach. We will write a custom essay sample on Teacher Expectancy Effect or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page 3. 1. 1 Case studies In order to determine the relationship between teacher expectations and students performance, Rosenthal amp; Jacobson (1963) conducted a research at an educational institutions. The research involved testing of the IQ level of a group of children from the first grade to the sixth grade at Oak School. They chose a test called the Tests of General Ability (TOGA) at the start of the academic year. The advantage of this test was that it is not dependent on the skills students had learned in school. They named this test as the â€Å"Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition†. Among this group of students, 20% were identified as having a high potential of academic ‘blooming’ and hence were notified to the teachers. What the teachers were not informed of was that these 20% had been in fact selected randomly out of all those who had taken the test. At the end of the academic year, another similar IQ TOGA test was administrated to the students and results collected were significant. Taking the mean (average) point of all the students from the first grade to the sixth grade, it was found that the experimental group (these 20% of randomly selected students) showed a 12. 2 point increment as compared to those in the controlled group (the rest of the 80%) of having only a 8. 42 point increment. So, the data showed that the randomly selected group whom the teacher expected or believed (in their heads) to perform better scored significantly higher than the rest of their friends even though they took the same exam and studied in the same classroom with the same syllabus and teacher the whole year round (Rosenthal amp; Jacobson, 1963). Another interesting research was also carried out by the famous education sociologist Ray Rist (1970 as cited in Covington, 1992). Rist observed that in a kindergarten classroom with teacher and students who are all African American, the teacher had the tendency of placing the â€Å"better† students at the table nearest to her, the â€Å"average† one beside the â€Å"better† ones and â€Å"the weakest† ones farthest from her. Note that these classifications (â€Å"better†, â€Å"average† and â€Å"weakest†) were all defined solely by the teacher according to her impressionistic perception, with nothing whatsoever like a placement test. This categorization was also found to be based on the social classes of the students, whereby the â€Å"better† ones belong to a higher social class and the â€Å"weakest† one from lower social classes (Covington, 1992, p. 140). Other researchers have also been carried out since then and the expectancy effect seems to thrive in all context of social life be it with university scholar at higher educational institutions or working adults at manufacturing company. This phenomenon has also been later coined as the â€Å"Pygmalion phenomenon† (Rhem, 1999). . 1. 2 Implications of teacher expectancy effect Hence, after we look at all these case studies, we could conclude that the students’ academic performance is clearly tied to teacher’s expectation. In other words, the students who were deemed as â€Å"better† or â€Å"good† ends up achieving better also due to the higher expectation that the teacher was giving to them. These result, especi ally Rosenthal and Jacobson’s, demonstrated extremely powerful self-fulfilling prophecy on the part of the teacher. This is because when a teacher forms certain expectations towards their students based on whatever characteristics (academic achievements, appearances, socioeconomic background, behaviour in class), she tend to behave according to these expectations, possibly even to the extent of being governed unconsciously by her expectations. As a result, she may very well treat students who she deemed â€Å"better† differently as how she would treat the rest of her students. For instance, she would give the â€Å"better† students a longer time to answer a question that she asked as compared to the â€Å"weaker† ones. On the other hand, she may ask a very simple question to the â€Å"weaker† students thinking that they cannot answer challenging ones and also to expect less from her student. This low expectancy that a teacher has towards her students would result in the students not trying their best or working their zone of proximal development to their fullest extent possible. In other words, students’ development, growth, and learning become restricted by the teacher who is teaching them.