The Dark Side of Pygmalion

The Oak School experiment that figures prominently in Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils/ Intellectual Development (R. Rosenthal, 1968) is universally acknowledged as a milestone in educational research, it is also accepted by many as just plain common sense. Simply put, when teachers expect students to show intellectual growth, they do. When teachers do not have such expectations, student performance and growth are not encouraged and in some cases discouraged. Almost all articles that speak to the Pygmalion effect have focused on the positive side of high expectations, that effective teachers can teach the unteachable. However, to truly understand the impact of teacher expectations let’s take a walk on the dark side.

The most disturbing finding in Rosenthal’s research is that when students in the so-called “lower track” (the control group) showed unexpected intellectual growth, their teachers’ evaluations declined in areas like behavioral adjustment and happiness. Rosenthal’s interpretation was - If the world thinks little of you, it is going to punish you if you begin to succeed. The following chart shows some of the teacher behaviors that send the message that students cannot or are not supposed to succeed.


According to Rosenthal, teachers face a moral dilemma; if a teacher knows that certain students in the class cannot learn, that teacher should get out of that classroom and, in some cases that school. Much like Luke Skywalker, teachers face the choice - be one with the force of high expectations for all students or choose to the dark side. May the force be with you all.