Pygmalion effect

The Pygmalion effect, or Rosenthal effect, refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the expectation placed upon people, often children or students and employees, the better they perform.

A couple of things stuck in my head today during our course. This effect did. Partly because it just makes sense but also because the opposite does – you expect very little of someone and your behaviour will change around them. Which in term affects their behaviour. Also, because I’m sometimes aware of how the people around me affect my behaviour. If they are nervous, worried it just rubs off and I can feel it too. I don’t like that.

But honestly, I lap this sort of stuff up. I’m sometimes a little too aware of my weaknesses but am more then willing to try to change things if those changes may make things better.

Like, we were asked how ratio of positive to negative comments we spoke in class. I wouldn’t know honestly. I know what I’d hope but it made me think. It’s easy to see how that can change a classroom. (But also, how it’s really difficult sometimes to focus on the positive…)

He talked about getting all the children involved and that we needed to try and stop the children thinking they needed to be right and that there is indeed benefit in getting things wrong. It’s a better way to learn isn’t it? About teaching them there is nothing wrong with making a mistake and that indeed is all the questions answered in the class are right first time – there’s something deeply wrong. In my head, it’s linking in the idea that failure are inevitable (and that that’s just fine).

It all started with him saying all the things that don’t effect a child’s learning, class size and strategies but that there was good news and bad news. The good news was that teachers make a difference and the bad news…

that teachers make a difference.