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An example of the teacher expectation effect in mixed ability teaching
Author(s) -
Matthews G. P.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of research in science teaching
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.067
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1098-2736
pISSN - 0022-4308
DOI - 10.1002/tea.3660190608
Subject(s) - reputation , phenomenon , mathematics education , class (philosophy) , psychology , population , stigma (botany) , pedagogy , social psychology , sociology , epistemology , social science , philosophy , demography , psychiatry
Much interest has been shown recently in teacher expectation or “self‐fulfilling prophecy” effects, despite the difficulty of making objective observations of the phenomenon. The present case study concerns a population of twelve mixed‐ability chemistry classes in a comprehensive school in the U.K. The poor behavior of one of the groups led to a stigma being attached to it by staff, and for various doubtful reasons, this became associated with another class as well. A statistical analysis of examination marks shows that neither reputation was justified in terms of academic achievement, and quantifies possible teacher expectation effects arising from the situation. The findings demonstrate the ease with which academic achievements can be hampered unwittingly by the prejudices of a teacher even in a well‐structured learning situation.