A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: How Expectations Impact Student Success

“If [people] define situations as real, they are real in their consequences” (Nichols, 2016, pg. 371).

With school populations becoming more and more diverse, it is important classroom teachers try and create equitable opportunities for all of their students, but teachers may unconsciously limit their students’ chances of academic success by setting preconceived expectations for success. There is a large body of research which describes the impact of high or low expectations on students. Oxford dictionaries defines expectation as, “the strong belief that something will happen or be the case” (Oxford University Press, 2018). These beliefs teachers hold for their students’ success has been proved to have a large impact of the actual success of students and these expectations may actually become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The expectations which other people hold for an individual can easily influence that individual’s perception of themselves and what they are capable of, and when the person expecting certain outcomes is someone of great importance in their life and success, like a teacher, it has to have an even greater impact.

In their research article, Chelsea Garcia and Heejung Chun, investigated the effects of teacher expectations and culturally responsive teaching on Latino middle school students. They define the risk factors which teachers decide their expectations as many uncontrollable and controllable factors, like “attractiveness, performance on tests and assignments, classroom behavior, educational history, special education labels, speech or language patterns, gender, ethnicity, and social class (Garcia and Chun, 2016, pg. 174). In other words, expectations are formed through stereotypes and biases which teachers consciously and unconsciously hold about who can be successful in specific skills or areas, school, and in life in general. Garcia and Chun then go on to explain teachers can make their expectations apparent through their behavior towards each student, and students know who their teachers think will succeed. These “teacher expectations can perpetuate self-fulfilling prophecies that make students more likely to either succeed or fail” (Segal, 2014).

Social psychologist, Robert Merton, coined the term “self-fulfilling prophecy” in 1948. His work introduced the idea that behavior and situations can be impacted by the expectations of people surrounding them. When someone believes something will be true, it can altar the conditions until the prophecy actually becomes true (Nichols, 2016, pg. 372). This work has inspired many other researchers to continue studying this phenomenon and its impact, especially its impact on education and racial and class systems. In the article, “Education as Self-Fulfilling Prophecy”, Brameld, describes the effects of self-fulfilling prophecies, specifically those based on expectations about social class and race. Brameld criticizes many aspects of modern-day classrooms, specifically the use of homogenous grouping and other teaching and advising practices which perpetuate race and class divisions. Homogenous grouping or ability grouping, as I have often heard them referred to, classify students into “high” and “low” groups. Brameld points out student in these “low” groupings are aware of their place in the classroom. They know of their “allegedly meager capabilities” and that they are not expected to be as successful which can discourage them inside and outside of the classroom (Brameld, 2018, pg. 9). Ability groups are common trend in classrooms today, despite the large body of evidence which shows these negative consequences. Student are building their identity from an early age, and what impact does placing them in these “low” groups have on this evolving identity? If they are told from such an early age they are less-than their peers in any form and are not expected to be as successful, how can they expect success of themselves?

In his article, Brameld also discusses how teacher expectations and the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates racial and class systems. Students are expected to choose paths which “fit” their skill sets and opportunities. This advice often encourages minority and low-income students to choose paths which will keep them in the same situations they have been their whole lives with little to no room for improving their quality of life. Brameld said, “Thereby education helps not only to perpetuate racial and class divisiveness within schools themselves; it reinforces a technocratic system that depends upon phalanxes of employees trained to serve its imperious demands and to guarantee its own perpetuation” (Brameld, 2018, pg. 9). This showcases another larger issue with low teacher expectations. They perpetuate oppression of the subordinate groups.

The Pygmalion and Golem effects provide further explanation into how people’s expectations can affect individual’s outcomes. The Pygmalion effect states when teachers or other individuals have high expectations for someone’s success, that person is more likely to adapt their actions to their expectations and be more successful. The Golem effect states basically the same thing, but the Golem effect describes how low expectations will lead to lower outcomes. Many researchers have investigated the Pygmalion effect by using the classic Pygmalion effect study. In these studies, researchers randomly choose students of all different ability levels and tell their teacher that according to their test results they are bloomers and should be expected to grow tremendously in the coming months. Though these students did not come into these classrooms with higher intellectual abilities, by the end of the year these pinpointed students have intellectually improved more than the control group (Friedrich, Flunger, Nagengast, Jonkmann, & Trautwein, 2015). Studies like these show students who teachers set higher expectations for them start the year with a far greater advantage than their equally abled peers.

Teachers need to take advantage of these studies and knowledge to capitalize and increase the number of Pygmalion effects and decrease the number of Golem effects. They can only do this by being aware of the expectations they set for each student and their biases which influence these expectations.  Really, teachers need to be aware of how its not just their teaching practice which effect their students’ achievement and attitudes. The teacher’s own actions, thoughts, and expectations also play a large role in their students’ achievement.

References

Bishop, D. (2015). [Pygmalion effect graphic]. http://discovermagazine.com/2015/dec/14-great-expectations 
Brameld, T. (1972). Education as self-fulfilling prophecy. The Phi Delta Kappan, 54(1), 8-61. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20373369 

Expectation. (2018). In Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/expectation 

Friedrich, A., Flunger, B., Nagengast, B., Jonkmann, K., & Trautwein, U. (2015). Pygmalion effects in the classroom: Teacher expectancy effects on students’ math achievement. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 41, 1–12. https://ezproxyprod.ucs.louisiana.edu:4128/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2014.10.006

Garcia, C., & Chun, H. (2016). Culturally responsive teaching and teacher expectations for Latino middle school students. Journal of Latina/o Psychology, 4(3), 173–187. https://ezproxyprod.ucs.louisiana.edu:4128/10.1037/lat0000061 

Nichols, L. (2016). The Enduring Social Psychology of Robert K. Merton: Motivating Sentiments, Reference Groups and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies. American Sociologist, 47(2/3), 356–381. https://ezproxyprod.ucs.louisiana.edu:4128/10.1007/s12108-016-9313-1

Segal, C. (2014, October 7). Teachers expect less from black and Hispanic students, study shows. PBS News Hour. Retrieved from https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/teachers-expect-less-students-color-study-shows