#10 Pygmalion in the Classroom

Ed 304
Katelyn Hartley

Purpose: Values
- The power of teacher influence
- Answer the question of whether in a upon children.
period of one year or less the children - The well being of children.
who are expected to have greater - Developing new teaching
intellectual growth will show practices to help children
intellectual growth more than the succeed.
undesignated control group children.
- Answer 4 questions regarding
advantages to a child whose teacher
had favorable expectations for his
intellectual development, would these
expectancy advantages be greater for:
- 1. Children in the lower grades or
higher grades?
- 2. Children in the fast track, or medium
track, or slow track?
- 3. Children of one sex rather than the
others?
- 4. Children of minority group or
nonminority group status?
-
Central Message: Validation:

1. The major variable of age. 1. Social influence of children

2. Results of age.
3. The major variable of ability.
4. Results of ability.
5. The major variable of sex.
6. Results of sex (male or female).
7. The major variable of minority group
status.
8. Results of minority group status.
9. Conclusions
increased from infancy to ages 7-
9 but decreased after that.
2. Younger children benefited most.
3. Literature and research is not
helpful to determine this
category.
4. “Whether boys or girls are the
more susceptible to social
influence processes depends on
whether the influencer is male or
female. Boys are more
susceptible to social influence.
5. “None of the statistical tests
showed any differences among
the three tracks in the extent to
which they benefited from
 teachers’ favorable prophecies.”
6. Sex complicated the amount of
expectancy advantage found in
the three tracks. To summarize
“girls bloomed more in the
reasoning sphere of intellectual
functioning, and boys bloomed
more in the verbal sphere of
intellectual functioning when
some kind of unspecified
blooming was expected of them.
7. To qualify as a minority group for
the student “either the child
himself or his parents had to
come from Mexico, Spanish had
to be spoken at home, and the
child had to be present for the
administration of certain
procedures.
8. Minority children did better in
total IQ, verbal IQ, and reasoning
IQ when they had favorable
expectations.
9. Conclusions “The results of the
experiment described in some
detail provide further evidence
that one person’s expectations of
another’s behavior may come to
serve as a self-fulfilling
prophecy.” Younger children are
more malleable.