A Case Study of the “Pygmalion Effect”: Teacher Expectations and Student Achievement

Abstract

The “Pygmalion effect” usually refers to the fact that people, often children ,students or employees, turn to live up to what’s expected of them and they tend to do better when treated as if they are capable of success(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). However, the positive teaching expectations do not necessarily lead to high student achievement. The case of the learners majoring in thermodynamics matches “anti-Pygmalion-effect” phenomena, showing that in educational domain, it is not always the case that “you get what you expect.” Student motivation, enthusiasm and achievement are influenced by multiple factors besides teacher expectation.