Karen Boyes

In part 1, I highlighted that teachers’ expectations can dramatically affect students’ achievement. This uniquely human phenomenon is the Pygmalion Effect. Here is another example. If a student in your class scores significantly better on a test, than you would have predicted, would you look first at alternative reasons before admitting you had pre-judged this student’s ability? Would you be tempted to re-mark the test or think about who was sitting close to that student during the test and compare answers for signs of cheating? As author W Wagner claims, “The ultimate function of a prophecy is not to tell the future, but to make it.” Every time a teacher sizes up or down a student they are influencing the…

Teachers’ expectations can dramatically affect students’ achievement. Really believing makes a difference. Teachers can create better student results by just believing in them. This is even truer with underachievers. If a teacher is told that her students are bright, the teacher will be more supportive, teach more difficult material, allow more ‘wait’ time for students to answer questions and provide more thoughtful and useful feedback to the students. In turn, the students receiving this attention will perform to this level. They actually score higher on educational tests, even if they are not ‘bright’, simply because the teacher believes in them. This also applies in reverse. If a teacher believes his or her students are under-achievers, he or she will be…