Teacher Expectancies Robert Rosenthal 1966

Description of Experiment Teachers are provided information about student ability at the beginning of the year to test if teachers might unknowingly behave in ways that will favor the advancement of those students that are more likely to succeed at the expense of those students that have lower promise

Predicted Outcome Students that are in the testing group will show a greater increase in IQ after eight months of school Students that are in the testing group will receive subtle messages from teachers of reinforcement that will allow them to improve their IQ scores at a greater rate than the control group

What Happened Students in a middle class neighborhood elementary school were given a test of general ability (TOGA) Teachers were told that the test was the Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition which predicts academic blooming in students The results of each student was reported to each of the teachers. 20% of the students were randomly chosen and were given high scores as part of a testing group. The remaining students were not given high scores and were the control group

What Happened At the end of the eight month period, students were given the TOGA again. The change in IQ score was recorded for each student Comparisons of the change in IQ for the control group vs. the experimental group were then performed

Results Experimental group in the lower grades (1- 2) showed a significant difference in IQ gain vs. the control group The experimental group in grades 3-6 did not show a significant difference in IQ gain vs. the control group

Results

Discussion Students in lower grades are more transformable than those of higher grades Younger children are also more susceptible to subtle messages from teachers Teachers of younger children also give more explanations of their expectations Younger students have less well-established reputations so expectation carry more weight

References Rosenthal, R., Jacobson, S.L. (1966). Teachers’ Expectancies: Determinates of Pupils’ IQ Gains. Psychological Reports, 19,