In Teach with Your Strengths, a page-turner I read in 2024, putative authors – Rosanne Liesveld, Jo Ann Miller and Jennifer Robinson, courageously contend, “It takes a good teacher to make good students.
A highly effective teacher elicits students’ growth regardless of their background. Great teachers want more than anything to have a significant impact on students. They have to make a mark, not only on students one by one, but also on the entire society.”
Likewise, in a certain insightful piece I pored over in the recent past, Robert Rosenthal, a social psychologist, wondered whether some children perform poorly in school because their teachers expect them to do so. Therefore, he thought deeply about inter-personal expectancy and self-fulfilling prophesies.
Robert Rosenthal contended that the way teachers perceive learners as individuals or as a class, has a puissant impact on learning outcomes. While gelling this good idea, he experimented in an actual classroom.
How? He issued a test on learning ability in a certain school. Later, after the grading of the tests, teachers were casually given appellation of 6 learners in each new class who were designated as ‘spurters’ — possessing exceptional learning abilities. Somewhat, teachers were oblivious that picking of names happened a head of the test on random basis. The difference between the few learners chosen and the other children, existed only in the mortal minds of teachers.
Again, the same tests taken at the end of the school years revealed that the ‘spurters’ had excelled exceedingly. They emerged as valedictorians. Moreover, teachers described them as happy learners. They were also more curious. Showing the joy of learning and with a buoyant spirit. They had better chances of attaining peerless performance. Somehow, the school worked only on one core component of learning — attitude (mindset plus beliefs).
Done on a positive note, when teachers expected more from students on a good note, they reciprocated by expecting more from themselves. No wonder, Robert Rosenthal concluded: these components, blended beautifully to explain the expectations teachers had on learners. The perception of learners changed. They thought of reaching and touching the crest of great achievement.
Actually, this forms the provenance of Rosenthal Effect, associated with Robert Rosenthal. In other credible sources of knowledge, it is Pygmalion Effect. Its opposite is Golem Effect.
Pygmalion Effect is a psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area. The effect is associated with the Greek myth of Pygmalion — the sculptor who fell so much in love with the beautiful statue he created. The admiration he had for the statue made it come to life.
Now, while I dote on it, you know why some schools stand out without cheating on their way to the epic of peak performance in KCSE. Most of the teachers in schools we celebrate as veritable academic giants expect a lot from learners. Again, they know how to communicate every bit of it to learners. Meaning, when we encourage learners, appreciate and affirm them firmly, they crane their necks. They walk heads held high. Their self-esteem soars. They stop to cry, and try.
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Conversely, we also pointed out that the opposite of Rosenthal or Pygmalion Effect is Golem Effect. The latter effect describes the process where superiors — such as Principals and teachers anticipate low performance from their subordinates. This, of course, entices poor performance.
In Hasidic Mythology, the Golem was a creature built from clay, and made of mud. It was to serve its master. Of course, this was a serious joke. Then, there is another self-fulfilling prophesy called Galatea Effect, where raising an individual’s self-efficacy results in an increase in performance. Galatea Effect only occurs when there is an actual increase in self-efficacy, as well as an increase in performance.
Self-efficacy is people’s belief about their capabilities to perform tasks or assignments that can transform their lives. Also, self-efficacy influences domains of learning such as cognitive, affective, normative and psycho-motor.
By Victor Ochieng’
The writer is an education consultant. He visits schools all over the country to deliver academic and career talks. He builds the capacity of staff. He trains student councils and peer counsellors. vochieng.90@gmail.com. 0704420232
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