The document summarizes research on the Pygmalion effect, which is when a teacher's expectations of a student can influence the student's performance. It describes an experiment by Rosenthal and Jacobson where teachers were told some students would bloom academically, though these students were randomly selected. At the end of the school year, those students performed significantly better, showing how teacher expectations can become self-fulfilling prophecies. It notes both verbal and nonverbal cues influence students by communicating expectations to them.

1. UNIVERSIDAD DEL ESTADO DE SONORA
PYGMALION
EFFECTINTRODUCCION A LA DIDACTICA
Profra. Claudia Molina
ALUMNAS:
Andrea Larissa Sandoval Vallejo
Valeria Ortiz Iñiguez.
San Luis Rio Colora, Sonora. A martes 24 de marzo del
2015.

2. INTRODUCTION
The work of Rosenthal and Jacobsen
(1968), among others, shows that
teacher expectations influence student
performance. Positive expectations
influence performance positively, and
negative expectations influence
performance negatively. Rosenthal and
Jacobson originally described the
phenomenon as the Pygmalion Effect.
“When we expect certain behaviors of others, we are likely to
act in ways that make the expected behavior more likely to
occur.” (Rosenthal and Babad, 1985)

3. PYGMALION EFFECT
 The Pygmalion effect refers to the phenomenon in
which the greater the expectation placed upon
people the better they perform.
 Is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy, and, in this
respect, people will internalize their negative label,
and those with positive labels succeed
accordingly.
Source: Boundless. “Teachers' Expectations.” Boundless Sociology. Boundless, 14 Nov. 2014.
Retrieved 24 Mar. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-sociology-
textbook/education-13/the-symbolic-interactionist-perspective-102/teachers-expectations-577-9627/

4. PYGMALION RESEARCH IN
THE CLASSROOM
 The Pygmalion effect was famously applied to
the classroom in the Rosenthal-Jacobson
study, published in 1968. In this study, Robert
Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson showed that if
teachers were led to expect enhanced
performance from some children, then the
children did indeed show that enhancement.

5. EXPERIMENT
 Focused on an experiment at an elementary school
where students took intelligence pre-tests.
 Informed the teachers of the names of twenty
percent of the students in the school who were
showing “unusual potential for intellectual growth”
and would bloom academically within the year.
 Unknown to the teachers, these students were
selected randomly with no relation to the initial test.
 Tested the students eight months later, they
discovered that the randomly selected students
who teachers thought would bloom scored
significantly higher.

6. Teacher expects a
specific behavior
from specific
student.
Because of these
expectations, teacher
behaves differently
toward student.
This treatment tells
student what
behavior teacher
expects from them.
If the treatment is
consistent, it will
shape the student’s
behavior over time.
Students’ behavior
will conform more
and more closely to
teachers expectation
of them. TEACHER
EXPECTANC
Y EFFECT

7. TEACHER EXPECTANCY
EFFECT
Teachers usually have higher
expectations for students they view as
higher achievers and treat these
students with more respect. For
example, studies have found that when
students are split into ability-
based groups, the students in the higher-
ability groups are more likely to
demonstrate positive learning behaviors
and higher achievement.
Source: Boundless. “Teachers' Expectations.” Boundless Sociology. Boundless, 14 Nov. 2014.

8. Teachers' expectations may also be
gendered, perhaps explaining some of the
gender achievement gap. Gender
stereotyping within classrooms can also
lead to differences in academic
achievement and representation for female
and male students.
Source: Boundless. “Teachers' Expectations.” Boundless Sociology.
Boundless, 14 Nov. 2014. Retrieved 24 Mar. 2015
from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-
sociology-textbook/education-13/the-symbolic-interactionist-perspective-
TEACHER EXPECTANCY
EFFECT

10. The Pygmalion effect is a theory teaching
that people will act or behave in the way
that others expect them to. The effect has
both positive and negative outcomes — a
person expected by his or her superiors to
succeed will, but the opposite is also
usually true. Most of the time, these
expectations are not openly discussed.
They are communicated passively through
things like word choice or body language.
SELF-FULFILLING
PROPHECY

11. SELF-FULFILLING
PROPHECY
Body language is just as important as
verbal communication when conveying
both positive and negative expectations,
as is tone of voice. The use of body
language is most commonly a
subconscious form of communication, but
it can prove to be very powerful. The
response and interpretation of non-verbal
signals is also often subconscious but
tends to be long-lasting, especially when
referring to one person's expectations of

12. SUCCESS
MOTIVATE
COACH
INSPIRE
TEACH
TEAM
WORK
VISION
LEAD BY
EXAMPLE
MENTOR

14. CONCLUSION
People do better when more is expected from them. This means that
we tend to need what is known as motivation to gain knowledge. There
has been different types of studies that show the role of the teacher in
these situations. As future teachers we should be aware of our role
and how to handle this types of situations, we shouldn’t expect more
from others, it is our job to treat everyone the same and not let anyone
down.
-Valeria Ortiz Iñiguez
We have seen in our trayectory academic this situation I think many
times, the teachers hope more of the students that they show more
responsability, ignoring the other students, when the best thing they
have do is motivate every one in the same way.
- Andrea Larissa Sandoval Vallejo.

15. SOURCES
 Source: Boundless. “Teachers' Expectations.” Boundless Sociology.
Boundless, 14 Nov. 2014. Retrieved 24 Mar. 2015
from https://www.boundless.com/sociology/textbooks/boundless-
sociology-textbook/education-13/the-symbolic-interactionist-
perspective-102/teachers-expectations-577-9627/
 DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY, Murphy Building 600 Forbes Avenue 20
Chatham Square Pittsburgh, PA 15282
from http://www.duq.edu/about/centers-and-institutes/center-for-
teaching-excellence/teaching-and-learning/pygmalion
 Boser Ulrich. “The Power of the Pygmalion Effect.” Center of
American Progress. 06 Oct. 2015. Retrieved 23 Mar. 2015
from
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2014/10/
06/96806/the-power-of-the-pygmalion-effect/