Abstract
Teacher expectancy effects, the class of phenomena in which teacher beliefs about students influence student outcomes, are widely believed to operate through recursive processes of teacher-student interaction. Recent work in “wise” interventions has shown profound and robust effects in educational domains, and has attributed these effects to similar recursive processes (Yeager and Walton 2011). In this paper, we lay a foundation for forging connections between what we know about expectancy effects and how we might envision applying that knowledge as a lever in intervention research. We review the evidence for the existence and significance of teacher expectancy effects, as well as their possible mediators, including perceptual biases, confirmation biases, stereotyping, and attributional biases. We also hypothesize that empathy could play a role in mediating a relationship between expectancies and attributions. Finally, we propose a research agenda focused on the transmission, mediation, and attributional effects of teacher expectancies.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Au, K. H. P. (1980). Participation structures in a reading lesson with hawaiian children: Analysis of a culturally appropriate instructional event. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 11(2), 91–115.
Babad, E. (1980). Expectancy bias in scoring as a function of ability and ethnic labels. Psychological Reports, 46(2), 625–626.
Babad, E. (1990). Calling on students: How a teacher’s behavior can acquire disparate meanings in students’ minds. The Journal of Classroom Interaction, 25(1/2), 1–4.
Babad, E. (1992). Teacher expectancies and nonverbal behavior. In R. S. Feldman (Ed.), Applications of nonverbal behavioral theories and research (pp. 167–190). New York, NY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Babad, E. (2009). The social psychology of the classroom. New York: Routledge.
Babad, E. Y., Inbar, J., & Rosenthal, R. (1982). Pygmalion, Galatea, and the Golem: Investigations of biased and unbiased teachers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74(4), 459–474.
Borko, H., & Shavelson, R. J. (1978). Teachers’ sensitivity to the reliability of information in making causal attributions in an achievement situation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 70(3), 271–279.
Braun, C. (1976). Teacher expectation: Sociopsychological dynamics. Review of Educational Research, 46(2), 185–213.
Brophy, J. E. (1983). Research on the self-fulfilling prophecy and teacher expectations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 75(5), 631.
Brophy, J. E., & Good, T. L. (1970). Teachers’ communication of differential expectations for children’s classroom performance: Some behavioral data. Journal of Educational Psychology, 61(5), 365.
Claiborn, W. L. (1969). Expectancy effects in the classroom: A failure to replicate. Journal of Educational Psychology, 60(5), 377.
Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65(1), 333–371.
Cooper, H. (1983). Communication of teacher expectations to students. In J. Levine & M. Wang (Eds.), Teacher and student perceptions: Implications for learning (pp. 193–211). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Cooper, H. M., Baron, R. M., & Lowe, C. A. (1975). The importance of race and social class information in the formation of expectancies about academic performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 67(2), 312–319.
De Boer, H., Bosker, R. J., & van der Werf, M. P. (2010). Sustainability of teacher expectation bias effects on long-term student performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102(1), 168.
Elashoff, J. D., & Snow, R. E. (1971). Pygmalion reconsidered: A case study in statistical inference: Reconsideration of the Rosenthal–Jacobson data on teacher expectancy. Stanford, CA: Stanford Center for Research and Development in Teaching.
Fielder, W. R., Cohen, R. D., & Finney, S. (1971). An attempt to replicate the teacher expectancy effect. Psychological Reports, 29(3), 1223–1228.
Galper, R. E. (1976). Turning observers into actors: Differential causal attributions as a function of “empathy”. Journal of Research in Personality, 10(3), 328–335.
Gay, G. (1975). Teachers’ achievement expectations of and classroom interactions with ethnically different students. Contemporary Education, 46(3), 166–172.
Glock, S., & Krolak-Schwerdt, S. (2014). Stereotype activation versus application: how teachers process and judge information about students from ethnic minorities and with low socioeconomic background. Social Psychology of Education, 17(4), 589–607.
Harari, H., & McDavid, J. W. (1973). Name stereotypes and teachers’ expectations. Journal of Educational Psychology, 65(2), 222–225.
Harris, M. J., & Rosenthal, R. (1985). Mediation of interpersonal expectancy effects: 31 meta-analyses. Psychological Bulletin, 97(3), 363.
Hinnant, J. B., O’brien, M., & Ghazarian, S. R. (2009). The longitudinal relations of teacher expectations to achievement in the early school years. Journal of Educational Psychology, 101(3), 662.
Jamil, F. M., Larsen, R. A., & Hamre, B. K. (2018). Exploring longitudinal changes in teacher expectancy effects on children’s mathematics achievement. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 49(1), 57–90.
Jeter, J. T., & Davis Jr., O. L. (1973). Elementary school teachers’ differential classroom interaction with children as a function of differential expectations of pupil achievements. In Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American educational research association. New Orleans, LA.
José, J., & Cody, J. J. (1971). Teacher-pupil interaction as it relates to attempted changes in teacher expectancy of academic ability and achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 8(1), 39–49.
Jussim, L. (1989). Teacher expectations: Self-fulfilling prophecies, perceptual biases, and accuracy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(3), 469–480.
Jussim, L., Eccles, J., & Madon, S. (1996). Social perception, social stereotypes, and teacher expectations: Accuracy and the quest for the powerful self-fulfilling prophecy. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 28, 281–388.
Jussim, L., & Harber, K. D. (2005). Teacher expectations and self-fulfilling prophecies: Knowns and unknowns, resolved and unresolved controversies. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 9(2), 131–155.
Jussim, L., Harber, K. D., Crawford, J. T., Cain, T. R., & Cohen, F. (2005). Social reality makes the social mind: Self-fulfilling prophecy, stereotypes, bias, and accuracy. Interaction Studies, 6(1), 85–102.
Kehle, T. J., Bramble, W. J., & Mason, E. J. (1974). Teachers’ expectations: Ratings of student performance as biased by student characteristics. The Journal of Experimental Education, 43(1), 54–60.
Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. Theory into Practice, 34(3), 159–165.
Lord, C. G., Ross, L., & Lepper, M. R. (1979). Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37(11), 2098–2109.
Mason, E. J. (1973). Teachers’ observations and expectations of boys and girls as influenced by biased psychological reports and knowledge of the effects of bias. Journal of Educational Psychology, 65(2), 238–243.
Mason, E. J., & Larimore, D. L. (1974). Effects of biased psychological reports on two types of teachers’ ratings. Journal of School Psychology, 12(1), 46–50.
McGinley, P., & McGinley, H. (1970). Reading groups as psychological groups. Journal of Experimental Education, 39(2), 35–42.
Meissel, K., Meyer, F., Yao, E. S., & Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2017). Subjectivity of teacher judgments: Exploring student characteristics that influence teacher judgments of student ability. Teaching and Teacher Education, 65, 48–60.
Mendels, G. E., & Flanders, J. P. (1973). Teachers’ expectations and pupil performance. American Educational Research Journal, 10(3), 203–211.
Nasie, M., Bar-Tal, D., Pliskin, R., Nahhas, E., & Halperin, E. (2014). Overcoming the barrier of narrative adherence in conflicts through awareness of the psychological bias of naïve realism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(11), 1543–1556.
Okonofua, J. A., & Eberhardt, J. L. (2015). Two strikes: Race and the disciplining of young students. Psychological Science, 26(5), 617–624.
Raudenbush, S. (1984). A hierarchical model for studying school effects. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(1), 85–97.
Rist, R. C. (1970). Student social class and teacher expectations: The self-fulfilling prophecy in ghetto education. Harvard Educational Review, 40(3), 411–451.
Rosenthal, R. (1994). Interpersonal expectancy effects: A 30-year perspective. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3(6), 176–179.
Rosenthal, R., & Jacobson, L. (1968). Pygmalion in the classroom: Teacher expectation and pupils’ intellectual development. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Ross, L., & Ward, A. (1995). Psychological barriers to dispute resolution. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 27, 255–304.
Rubie-Davies, C. M. (2010). Teacher expectations and perceptions of student attributes: Is there a relationship? British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(1), 121–135.
Rubie-Davies, C. M., Hattie, J., & Hamilton, R. (2006). Expecting the best for students: Teacher expectations and academic outcomes. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(3), 429–444.
Rubie-Davies, C. M., Weinstein, R. S., Huang, F. L., Gregory, A., Cowan, P. A., & Cowan, C. P. (2014). Successive teacher expectation effects across the early school years. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 35(3), 181–191.
Rubovits, P. C., & Maehr, M. L. (1973). Pygmalion black and white. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25(2), 210–218.
Seaver, W. B. (1973). Effects of naturally induced teacher expectancies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28(3), 333–342.
Sedlacek, Q. C., & Murdock-Perriera, L. A. (2018). Teachers' sources of foreknowledge about their students (Manuscript in preparation).
Snyder, M., Tanke, E. D., & Berscheid, E. (1977). Social perception and interpersonal behavior: On the self-fulfilling nature of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 35(9), 656–666.
Sorhagen, N. S. (2013). Early teacher expectations disproportionately affect poor children’s high school performance. Journal of Educational Psychology, 105(2), 465.
Sorotzkin, F., Fleming, E. S., & Anttonen, R. G. (1974). Teacher knowledge of standardized test information and its effect on pupil IQ and achievement. The Journal of Experimental Education, 43(1), 79–85.
Stewart, Q. T. (2008). Chasing the race effect: An analysis of traditional quantitative research on race in sociology. In C. A. Gallagher (Ed.), Racism in post-race America: New theories, new directions (pp. 285–304). Chapel Hill, NC: Social Forces Publishing.
Tal, Z., & Babad, E. (1989). The” teacher’s pet” phenomenon as viewed by Israeli teachers and students. The Elementary School Journal, 90(1), 97–108.
Tal, Z., & Babad, E. (1990). The teacher’s pet phenomenon: Rate of occurrence, correlates, and psychological costs. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(4), 637.
Tenenbaum, H. R., & Ruck, M. D. (2007). Are teachers’ expectations different for racial minority than for European American students? A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(2), 253–273.
Tobisch, A., & Dresel, M. (2017). Negatively or positively biased? Dependencies of teachers’ judgments and expectations based on students’ ethnic and social backgrounds. Social Psychology of Education, 20(4), 731–752.
Trusz, S. (2017). The teacher’s pet phenomenon 25 years on. Social Psychology of Education, 20(4), 707–730.
Tuckman, B. W., & Bierman, M. (1971). Beyond Pygmalion: Galatea in the schools. In Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American educational research association. New York, NY.
Walton, G. M. (2014). The new science of wise psychological interventions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(1), 73–82.
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority students. Science, 331(6023), 1447–1451.
Wilkins, W. E., & Glock, M. D. (1973). Teacher expectations and student achievement: A replication and extension. Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Research and Development.
Willis, B. (1970). The influence of teacher expectation on teachers’ classroom interaction with selected children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, TN.
Word, C. O., Zanna, M. P., & Cooper, J. (1974). The nonverbal mediation of self-fulfilling prophecies in interracial interaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 10(2), 109–120.
Yeager, D. S., & Walton, G. M. (2011). Social-psychological interventions in education: They’re not magic. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 267–301.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Murdock-Perriera, L.A., Sedlacek, Q.C. Questioning Pygmalion in the twenty-first century: the formation, transmission, and attributional influence of teacher expectancies. Soc Psychol Educ 21, 691–707 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-018-9439-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-018-9439-9