Teacher-Student Interaction, Expectations and the Pygmalion Effect

Teacher-Student Relationships and Developmental Outcomes

[T.13] [13.1] Teacher / student: Solution to developmental defects (compensatory condition / RISG). Criticisms: 1. Establishment of relationships with APGO (basic security), 2. Autonomy and motivation efficacy, 3. Development of social skills with equals.

Sophisticated.

[13.1.1] Internal Models: Basic Trust and Self-Esteem

Through relationships, children build representational models of security and insecurity. These allow them to: 1) trust themselves, 2) predict and interpret, and 3) structure their relationships with others. A sociocultural disadvantage may hinder this construction.

[13.1.2] Effective Motivation

Achievement involves goals, obstacles and holistic efforts, and it affects the environment (related to the quality of early interaction). Rejection or inattention (social deprivation) produces insecurity, anxiety, and a lack of self-reinforcement and efficacy. Dependence on the needs of others and of attention increases. Economic disadvantage brings uncontrollability, learned helplessness and productive depression (need for experience of success, opportunities).

[13.2] The Hidden Curriculum

Jackson's work on life in classrooms, together with observational methodology, reveals norms that are implied rather than stated. Causes of most punishment include the transmission of: 1) a strong power hierarchy and ranking, 2) monotony and boredom, and 3) constant evaluation.

Obtaining approval from teachers simultaneously can be incompatible. Students who cannot support certain characteristics (submission) are sometimes preferred by teachers, and conformist students are favored, since teachers tolerate the disappearance of divergent attitudes and customs.

[13.3] Student Adjustment to the School System

Research (Jackson): A study of 5-6 year olds in a multiethnic center examined variables including: 1) adjustment to the school system, 2) relationship and strategies with peers, 3) the teacher-student relationship as perceived by the student, 4) acceptance by companions (sociometry), and 5) interaction (video).

Conclusions:

1. Adjustment (r = .54) depends on the teacher's assessment (general evaluation, classroom interventions, acceptance by peers).
2. Social competence and peer acceptance (r = .45; r = .33) relate to knowledge of interaction strategies.
3. Students develop a sense of motivating activity.
4. Taste for school is not significant; students who dislike school show problems of adaptation.
5. Students who prefer sports activities achieve success.
6. With age, discrepancy with the school increases (moral autonomy).
7. Adjustment (r = .49) depends on the educational level and occupation of parents (understanding of objectives and roles).

Transmission of expectations from teacher to student (Blumenfeld):

1. The process operates implicitly.
2. Evaluations and consequences: compliance or not with expectations in young students.
3. Higher conformity in lower-class students.
4. Perception of low teacher expectations: classes underestimate, parents overvalue the teacher.
5. Experience from other adults and teachers is stereotyped.
6. The type of teaching received (program control accentuates discipline) shapes perceptions of responsibility for their own performance.

[14] The Pygmalion Effect

[14.1] Pygmalion Effect

Sociologist Merton (on the unfounded fear that breaks the method) and Rosenthal (Pygmalion in the classroom) showed that although expectations may not always be fulfilled, they can be. Aptitude tests predict performance. The greatest effect appears in: 1) lower courses, 2) middle-class sections, and 3) children who look Hispanic.

Criticisms:

1. Methodological: misapplication of instruments and statistical analysis.
2. Ambiguity: the difference between expectations as cause or effect is unclear, as is how expectations (indirect sources) are produced.
3. Consequences: disappointment; excessive expectations may cause harm.

Myers notes that this explains only 5% of the variance.

[14.2] Discrimination in the Classroom

1. Socio-ethnic stereotypes: existing differences are generalized and perpetuated. Ethnicity has a greater effect than perceptual factors (social descriptions are written), and this decreases the effect. Confirmation is easy, disconfirmation is hard.
2. Relative position: comparison with the reference group (partners) or hypothetical group.
3. Observation and
4. Control of expectations: behavior of good students is self-attributed, while bad behavior is attributed externally.

Differential treatment is criticized in terms of: disruptive behavior, logic (performance, holistic efforts), public versus private (vs. positive and negative expectations), and quantitative factors: 1) opportunities to respond in public, 2) time, 3) difficulty of questions, 4) reinforcement.

Work of risk: expectations, negative status under influence, positive in courses. In the primary classroom area, negative reinforcement is similar to verbal and nonverbal reinforcement in the middle class.

Cooperation: meeting expectations increases control (negative/positive).

Student perception of differential treatment:

1. Preschool: a privileged relationship with the teacher, a self-centered sense (similar to parental relationships).
2. Some teachers are perceived as having positive differentiators.
3. Years 6-7: differential treatment is global, aimed at supporting high achievers (questions, instructions). Few attributes are perceptible, absolute and directly observable.
4. Years 11-12: autonomy becomes important (valued over directivity, unlike years 6-7), with attributes and inferences.

Effect of stable influences: expectations influence (1) attitudes, (2) how the teacher deals with the student and achievement motivation, (3) average performance, and (4) the child.

[14.3] Teacher-Student Interaction Styles

Positive / good: conflict coping styles:

1. Proactive: flexible and precise expectations, individualized and efficient teaching. Does not interfere with or hinder students' educational objectives.
2. Reactive (passive): flexible expectations that maintain reactions to initial differences. Controls student interactions but does not compensate for or foster inequality. Students are not likely to meet their expectations, and the majority are negative.
3. Overreactive: treats students as if differences were greater, and stereotypes students, producing negative expectation effects.

Characteristics related to discrimination and expectation effects:

1. Competence and psychopedagogical resources.
2. Form of perceiving rigidity (conflict versus flexible expectations; management of dogmatism, anxiety and rigidity).
3. Definition of the teacher's role (adjusting to the student, ensuring programs, responsibility for student performance, positive expectations).