The Pygmalion Effect and the Power of Positive Expectations

According to what The Pygmalion Effect tell us, the expectations a teacher has about his students, directly influence their academic performance. This can be seen perfectly in this video.

An exam is taken at a school. Then they put the names of all the students inside a hat and they take out several, randomly.  Teachers are told that these children are the smartest or that they have the best results.

In one hand, we can see that children to whom teachers pay more attention develop more skills and learn much more than the rest. This is because teachers create a warmer climate with these students and give them more input than to the rest of their classmates. I mean, they are treated in a closer way. That is, the “favourite” students are the ones who learn the most.

On the other hand, these prejudices cause damage to the other students because, by paying more attention to certain students, they are leaving others aside. This affects negatively since they do not receive enough input to develop all his abilities adequately. From my point of view, this is a contradiction since they are giving more attention or more input to those who do not need it and not the other way around.  In addition, they begin to feel themselves inferior.

Therefore, with this study, the main idea is confirmed: The expectations a teacher has about his students, directly influence their academic performance.

For that reason, as teachers we must be impartial and treat all children equally. Inevitably, as we are human, we will have favouritism towards our students. And, without realizing it, we put aside other children. But we must be professionals and we must remember that our goal is to ensure that all our students develop their skills to the fullest.