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Pygmalion in The Classroom

This document summarizes Robert Rosenthal's research on teacher expectations and the Pygmalion effect. It discusses how Rosenthal found that when teachers expect students to perform well, the students tend to do so, and when teachers have low expectations, student performance suffers. It provides an example from Rosenthal's famous "Oak School" experiment where teachers were told certain students might show intellectual growth, and those students did significantly better on tests by the end of the year compared to the control group. The document also notes that studies at the college level have replicated these findings, contradicting claims that the Pygmalion effect only impacts young children. It concludes by explaining Rosenthal's research caused controversy as it identified a problem -

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173 views2 pages

Pygmalion in The Classroom

This document summarizes Robert Rosenthal's research on teacher expectations and the Pygmalion effect. It discusses how Rosenthal found that when teachers expect students to perform well, the students tend to do so, and when teachers have low expectations, student performance suffers. It provides an example from Rosenthal's famous "Oak School" experiment where teachers were told certain students might show intellectual growth, and those students did significantly better on tests by the end of the year compared to the control group. The document also notes that studies at the college level have replicated these findings, contradicting claims that the Pygmalion effect only impacts young children. It concludes by explaining Rosenthal's research caused controversy as it identified a problem -

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Pygmalion In The Classroom

James Rhem, Executive Editor

When you begin to talk with most university teachers about Harvard professor Robert Rosenthal's research into
the "Pygmalion phenomenon," they're interested. When you describe "the Oak School" experiment which
figures prominently in Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils' Intellectual Development
(1968; expanded edition 1992), almost invariably they respond as though the self-fulfilling prophecy embedded
in teachers' expectations was only a matter of common sense, another example of social science proving obvious
facts that everybody knows. And then, almost instantly, they say something like, "but while I can see how this
could effect young children, I don't think it applies to college students."

Robert Rosenthal just laughs. "Oh, it applies," he says. "They're wrong. There've been experiments looking at
college algebra classes at the Air Force Academy, a study of undergraduates in engineering; there've been lots of
studies at the college level since the book came out confirming the findings," he continues. "In fact, the original
research conducted when I was at the University of North Dakota was all done with graduate students and
under-graduates."

Self-fulfilling Prophecies

Simply put, when teachers expect students to do well and show intellectual growth, they do; when teachers do
not have such expectations, performance and growth are not so encouraged and may in fact be discouraged in a
variety of ways. In the famous Oak School experiment, teachers were led to believe that certain students
selected at random were likely to be showing signs of a spurt in intellectual growth and development. At the end
of the year, the students of whom the teachers had these expectations showed significantly greater gains in
intellectual growth than did those in the control group. This was especially pronounced in first and second
graders and in fifth and sixth graders, though less so in third and fourth grade students. Without becoming
inundated by a sea of numbers, we can see from one example the degree of significance found. First graders in
the control group showed a gain of twelve IQ points; students in the experimental group showed a gain of 27.4
IQ points. Overall, taking the students from the first through the sixth grades, the experimental group showed a
12.22 point gain versus an 8.42 gain for the control group. In short, the group of whom more was expected did
significantly better.

Studies conducted in higher education settings (see Dov Eden's Pygmalion in


Management, D.C. Heath: 1990, for citations) show an equally significant
"expectancy advantage" for those for whom instructors maintain higher
expectations.

Hard Facts, Not Answers

Why did Rosenthal's book cause such an uproar and receive such aggressive
criticism from educational psychologists when it first appeared? And why do
faculty still want not to believe their latent expectations might in fact be self-
fulfilling prophecies? Perhaps both have something to do with confronting
upsetting facts that seem to define a problem but offer little help in solving it.
Rosenthal frankly admits, "We don't know what we should do with these
findings."

Research into self-fulfilling prophecies has a long history both inside and outside the world of education.
Rosenthal's first studies date from the late 1950s, but the world of work had already produced dramatic
examples. A well-documented study from 1900 tells the story of the Hollerith tabulating machine newly
installed at the United States Census Bureau in 1890. The machine worked something like a typewriter and
required workers to learn a new skill the inventor regarded as somewhat complicated. He estimated that trained
workers would be able to process about 550 cards per day. After initial training and two weeks of experience the
workers were producing 550 cards per day, and after a period of time they produced even more, but only at great
emotional cost. Soon 200 new workers were added. They knew nothing of the stress and strain and heard
nothing about the machine. While the original group of workers were wringing themselves out to produce 700
cards per day, the new group soon began tabulating 2100 per day with no ill effects.

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