Self-Fulfilling Prophecy(SFP)

The self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that comes true simple by virtue of it having been made.

Step 1- The teacher labels a pupil and makes a prediction about them.

Step 2- The teacher treats the pupil according to the prediction.

Step 3- The pupil internalises the teacher's expectation and becomes the kind of pupil the teacher predicted.

What is the self-fulfilling prophecy?

Rosenthal and Jacobson (1968) study shows how the SFP works. They told the school that they had a new test specially designed to identify those pupils who would 'spurt' ahead. This was untrue because the test was an IQ test. The researchers tested all the pupils and then picked 20% of them randomly, and told the school that they were 'spurters'. When they returned a year later, they found that almost half (47%) of those 'spurters' had made significant progress especially the younger children.

They suggested that the teachers had been influenced by the test and the teachers' beliefs were conveyed to the pupils e.g. body language thus showing how the SFP works.

The SFP can also produce under-achievement. If a teacher has low expectations from a child and communicates these expectations to them, it might lead the child to develop a negative self- concept thus leading to failures.

Teachers' Expectations

Streaming involves separating children into different ability groups called 'streams'. They are taught separately from the other.

Becker shows that teachers don't see working class children as ideal pupils because they tend to see them as lacking ability thus working class children are found to be in lower streams. Once they are streamed, it is less likely for them to move up the streams. The children in the lower streams 'get the message' that the teachers have written them off as no-hopers.

This creates the SFP in which pupils live up to their teachers' low expectations by underachieving. By contrast, middle class pupils tend to benefit as they are closer to the 'ideal pupil'.

Streaming and the SFP