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Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils' Intellectual Development
When first published in 1968, (later updated in 1992), Pygmalion in the Classroom was received with almost universal acclaim for its ground breaking research. The "Pygmalion Phenomenon" is the self-fulfilling prophecy embedded in teachers' expectations. Simply put, when teachers expect students to do well and show intellectual growth, they do; when teachers do not have such expectation performance and growth are not as encouraged and may in fact be discouraged in a number of ways. Research suggests that our expectations strongly influence the performance of those around us from the members of our football team to the students in our classes. In the Oak School experiment discussed in this book 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. The results were startling. At the end of the year, the students of whom the teaches had these expectations showed significantly greater gains in intellectual growth than did those in the control group.
266 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 6, 2015
A compilation of qualitative research. A bit interesting.
August 22, 2024
ARE EXPECTATIONS OF TEACHERS A "SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY"?
Robert Rosenthal is Professor of Psychology at UC Riverside; Lenore Jacobsen is a former principal of an elementary school in the South San Francisco Unified School District. They wrote in the Preface of this 1968 book, "this book... is about interpersonal self-fulfilling prophecies: how one person's expectation for another person's behavior can quite unwittingly become a more accurate prediction simply for its having been made." (Pg. vii)
They summarize their experiment: "20 percent of the children in a certain elementary school were reported to their teachers as showing unusual potential for intellectual growth. The names of these 20 percent of the children were drawn by ... random numbers... Eight months later these unusual or 'magic' children showed significantly greater gains in IQ than did the remaining children who had not been singled out for the teachers' attention. The change in the teachers' expectations... had led to an actual change in the intellectual performance of these randomly selected children." (Pg. vii-viii) They later assert, "The gains that had been made by pupils of the teacher who held favorable expectations were maintained after promotion to a new teacher who had been given no special expectations about the children's performance." (Pg. 125-126)
They admit, "A very reasonable 'theory' to explain the results of our experiment proposes that children's IQs were affected only because teachers treated the special children differently during the actual period of test taking. A number of factors serve to weaken the plausibility of this explanation though there is no way in which it can be disproved." (Pg. 152) They also note, "the special children were called to the teachers' attention and it seems reasonable to think that they, therefore, attended more closely to the behavior of these children. Correct responding ... may have been more rapidly reinforced by teachers because they were watching more closely ... More rapid reinforcement may have led to greater learning." (Pg. 161)
They again summarize, "The central thesis of this book has been that one person's expectation for another's behavior could come to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy." (Pg. 174)
When I went through the standard teacher training program from 1975-1977, this book was considered "THE FINAL WORD" by our professors; time has diminished the "assuredness" of its conclusions, and its methodology has been severely questioned---nevertheless, it is a crucial book for anyone interested in educational theory.
Robert Rosenthal is Professor of Psychology at UC Riverside; Lenore Jacobsen is a former principal of an elementary school in the South San Francisco Unified School District. They wrote in the Preface of this 1968 book, "this book... is about interpersonal self-fulfilling prophecies: how one person's expectation for another person's behavior can quite unwittingly become a more accurate prediction simply for its having been made." (Pg. vii)
They summarize their experiment: "20 percent of the children in a certain elementary school were reported to their teachers as showing unusual potential for intellectual growth. The names of these 20 percent of the children were drawn by ... random numbers... Eight months later these unusual or 'magic' children showed significantly greater gains in IQ than did the remaining children who had not been singled out for the teachers' attention. The change in the teachers' expectations... had led to an actual change in the intellectual performance of these randomly selected children." (Pg. vii-viii) They later assert, "The gains that had been made by pupils of the teacher who held favorable expectations were maintained after promotion to a new teacher who had been given no special expectations about the children's performance." (Pg. 125-126)
They admit, "A very reasonable 'theory' to explain the results of our experiment proposes that children's IQs were affected only because teachers treated the special children differently during the actual period of test taking. A number of factors serve to weaken the plausibility of this explanation though there is no way in which it can be disproved." (Pg. 152) They also note, "the special children were called to the teachers' attention and it seems reasonable to think that they, therefore, attended more closely to the behavior of these children. Correct responding ... may have been more rapidly reinforced by teachers because they were watching more closely ... More rapid reinforcement may have led to greater learning." (Pg. 161)
They again summarize, "The central thesis of this book has been that one person's expectation for another's behavior could come to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy." (Pg. 174)
When I went through the standard teacher training program from 1975-1977, this book was considered "THE FINAL WORD" by our professors; time has diminished the "assuredness" of its conclusions, and its methodology has been severely questioned---nevertheless, it is a crucial book for anyone interested in educational theory.
September 28, 2025
I had the privilege of meeting Bob several times to talk about applying his research to coaching pitchers. He was a really wise and kind man. I owe a great deal of my success as a coach to those conversations with Bob at UC Riverside.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews