Self-Fulfilling Processes in the Classroom

In what ways might self-fulfilling processes arise in the classroom?    How might their effects be mitigated?

Introduction

A definition of self-fulling processes will be presented with a hypothetical example. A model offered by Rogers (1989) will then be used to illustrate how teacher expectancies can lead to self-fulling processes with supporting evidence for various parts of the model.

The role of context will then be discussed and before summarizing and concluding a transactional model will be used to bring together some ways of mitigating self-fulling processes occurring in the classroom.

Self-fulfilling processes

A self-fulfilling process is defined here as a series of events which have been started by an action that was based upon an expectation or predication formed from a false assessment of a situation. The series of events then leads to an outcome that supports the original but falsely asserted expectation or prediction as correct.

An example: A group of teachers are making decisions on which students they think are incapable of passing their GCSE science. Those children judged as not capable of passing are not entered. Those not entered do not pass, and the outcome then agrees with the prediction.

A model of teacher expectations becoming classroom outcomes

Rogers (1989), who argues that 'it is clear that teachers' expectations can and do have a causal effect upon various classroom outcomes' (OU.1), offers two distinct ways in which teacher expectations could result in self-fulfilling processes.

The first of these is through the interaction of the teacher and the student. The 'aggregate model' below offered Rogers illustrates this. The second way is through administration decisions. Such as illustrated earlier with the GCSE non exam entry example.

A sequence of events for an interaction model:

1. Teacher expectation is formed
2. The teacher's behaviour is a function of the expectation
3. The child notices the different behaviour
4. The child internalizes the inferred teacher attitude and this affects motivational processes and self concept
5. The child's behaviour is a function of their self concept and motivational processes
6. The child's academic performance and/ or conduct closer to the teacher's expectation are established.

One of the key elements in this model is the change in the child's self concept and motivational processes. A motivational aspect that has been shown to be important is intrinsic motivation. Dec and Ryan (1985) have produced substantial evidence to suggest 'it is educationally beneficial' (OU. 2).

Rogers argues for a link between teacher expectation and intrinsic motivation. Children that are 'low expectation pupils are.... less likely to engage in public interactions with the teacher, less likely to receive lengthy and informative feedback and less likely to have their ideas taken up and used by the teacher'(OU.3). He argues that these teacher behaviours will be counter-productive for the maintenance of intrinsic motivation.

The cyclic nature for the model is supported by Good and Brophy (1987), who associate with teacher expectancy the process whereby students that have already been successful are 'more likely to be given further opportunities to answer an initially incorrectly answered question than the pupil with the weaker track record' (OU.4).

Both the mechanisms of interactional differences and organizational features of a classroom or school could work together. A study by Rist (1970) (OU.5) illustrates the process.

The teacher studied grouped children in a kindergarten class by her judgement of their academic potential. Her subsequent interactions with the children over the year were then interpreted as being dependent upon which group the children were in. The children's interaction with each other came to depend on the groups they were in.

The organization of the classroom is seen then as helping to determine and sustain the nature of interactions between people in the class.

The focus so far has been on the teacher as the cause in self-fulfilling processes; however, the child also has a role to play by forming expectations of themselves.

For example, where a child attributes their failure to a lack of ability they may well not attempt similar tasks in the future or may put in less effort than they might have because they expect little reward from the activity. The outcome of any task tackled with such a view will at the least not challenge their expectation and at worst support the expectation held.

Why a child attributes their success or failure to any reason will in part be determined by the environment, i.e. their teachers and their peers.

The influence of the teacher and peers upon the childs expectations is supported by Nash ( 1973) who'—found that children are able to accurately assess their teacher's perception of themselves and also their classmates. Then they '...behave according to that perception'(OU.6).

This is also supported by work of Crocker and Cheesman (1988) who have shown that young children are able to academically rank themselves within the class.

The role of context

Rogoff et al (1984) state that the focus of developmental psychology has been on the individual. Activity of an individual being explained in terms of traits including social and cognitive ones. Context, although important, has been regarded as secondary to the characteristics of the person with the latter being assumed to be relatively stable across situations.

The view that a child's general cognitive abilities are stable across many situations or tasks has an association with the idea that a child's general abilities can be assessed from a few tests and observations. Piaget's conservation tasks are an example where the child's inability to conserve was taken 'as evidence of failure to decentre and of failure to reason' (Donaldson p62).

This stability of traits or characteristics across situations has however been challenged by the work of many researchers such as Donaldson (1978), Lloyd (1990), and Rogoff et al (1984).

Instead what is offered is ' ... that to understand children's actions it is essential to place these actions in the context of the children's interpretation of the task' (OU.7) and that the 'meaningfulness of the materials. demands, goals, and social situation of an activity...' (OU.8) all pertain to the individual child's interpretation and their performance.

The importance of considering context is illustrated well by Woodhead (1990) in his discussion of data of the effects of pre-school education upon children's school careers and beyond.

Woodhead presents data from the Perry pre-school project which clearly shows pre-schooled children to have been more successful in employment, further education etc. Why might this be?

One suggestion was that this early intervention was perhaps at a 'sensitive period in the children's development'(OU.9). The changes in the child's learning abilities and skills then stay with the child throughout their schooling. One implication of a sensitive period is that later interventions would not be as effective and therefore more costly.

Woodhead offers an alternative to the view of permanent or long lasting changes in the children. Instead it is the relationship between the children and their teachers that is important mportant to consider.

Woodhead's argument is that the effect of pre-schooling is to make positive changes in the children's abilities, attitudes to work and behaviours at a time 'when the education system was highly sensitive to signs of competency and adjustment.

The pre-schooled children would then be more likely to be judged as having greater academic potential than the non pre-schooled children. These judgements then start those organizational and interactional expectancy effects discussed earlier.

Considering what children bring to school

When children come to school or make a school transition they will probably encounter teacher expectations of behaviour and adjustment.

This 'process of making sense of school' can be considered as one of 'developing social competence' (Jackson p.81). A social competence of activity that is appropriate with regard to procedures and organization of the classroom, interpersonal relations and how to learn.

The extent to which a child is able to meet these competencies may determine their success within the classroom and any teacher assessment of their capabilities and potential.

Jackson's (1987) research compares two children in a book corner where one was able to meet the teacher's expectations and competencies and another who was not able to. The latter was then regarded by the teacher as likely to have problems as opposed to the former who was seen as successful.

Kevin spent his time in the book corner actively engaged with a book and although he was not able to decode the words he knew what the book was about. Kevin meet the teachers expectations.

Lee in contrast did not spend time looking at books but instead climbed furniture, looked at pictures, spoke to other children and examined a vase.

Kevin described his activity as reading, whereas Lee asserted that he could not read, and that he had come to school to learn to read and therefore saw no point in looking at books until he had learned to read.

By considering each of their individual past experiences their different perspectives can be understood.

Kevin's past experiences included his older brother teaching him to read and having stories read to him while. he said 'I just listened to the story and I watched the pictures'(Jackson p.79).

Kevin probably understood that books have stories, and that the story is revealed in both the pictures and the words. This knowledge then would have allowed him to engage in an activity that had meaning and purpose for him that also was appropriate with the teacher's expectations.

Jackson's discussion with Lee reveals that his past reading experiences were probably very different to Kevin's. His limited experience of books appears to have been one where he was learning to read words.

Was Lee aware of the story content of a book, of the sharing experiences that could be had between himself, others and the book? Was he aware that pictures and words in books were related?

The danger of the teacher's opinion that Lee was likely to have problems is that it may be the beginning of a self-fulfilling process. The alternative is to take a symbolic interactionists view that sees Lee's behaviour as being based on his past experiences and being meaningful to him and therefore potentially understandable to us. In Lee's case he did not engage with a book because he was waiting to learn to read.

With an awareness of Lee's perspective the teacher could restructure the classroom experiences and instructions to facilitate Lee's access to an understanding of books that would serve him better.

Similarly Lee's home reading experiences have the potential to be altered. For example, encouraging his mother to simply read a story to him. Such an intervention, however, then needs to consider the carers perspective.

The use of a transactional model for mitigating effects of self-fulling processes.

A social constructivist viev of development sees the child as active in the construction of their own identity, but the environment is also active in the process through social relationships within which the child develops' (Study Guide, part 1, p.35)

So the environment affects the child and as discussed earlier the child affecters the environment. Both then, the teacher and the child are active and interactive. Such a relationship of interplay is described by, the 'transactional model' 'suggested by Sameroff and Chandler ( 1975)', (OU.10).

Sameroff and C model is illustrated below with where E represents the environment and C the child. The vertical 'arrows' are the child's effect upon the environment or the environments upon the child.

                             E     ------------->  E  ========> E

                             I I                          I I                       I I

                             C    --------------> C ========> C

The horizontal arrows show movement from one state of the environment or child at one time to another time. Note the increasing thickness of the arrows from child's earliest state to successive ones. This is because as child gets older they learn more. This increasingly buffers the child to some extent from the transactional effect of the environment.

The significance of the transactional model is that it can be used to target intervention in a child's development. Smaeroff (1987) discusses three targets of intervention, remediation, redefinition and reeducation. Within this model the relative influence of the environment is s greater when the child is younger.

A remediation intervention would be aimed at repairing or changing the child. For example a child with severe behaviourial difficulties could be suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. It might therefore be appropriate to consider the use of drugs before the child's behaviour could be changed in a way that allowed them to appropriately participate in school life.

The earlier discussion of Lee illustrated examples of both redefinition and reeducation. Redefining Lee's behaviour as meaningful instead of attributing it to some general lack of ability or trait means the teacher can then envisage Lee as being successful within a school context. Teacher expectations are changed and the experiences available to Lee are increased.

The example of reeducation was the changing of the reading strategy that Lee's parents employed at home. With an aim of altering Lee's understanding of the appropriate response to reading activities at school. Similarly there is the possibility of reeducation of the teacher as to how to structure Lee's classroom experiences.

Within this model one particular feature is that the relative influence of the environment is greater when the child is younger. For example young children are acquiring a motivational style. During this period the teacher has the possibility to alter their responses towards the child and change their influence in the development of the motivational style. As time progresses and the child establishes a style the teachers influence decreases.

The model also illustrates that a child's present behaviour is in part dependent upon their past experiences and therefore the future development is dependent upon how we respond to them and structure their future experiences.

This perspective is what was as proposed to provide Lee with success and similarly this view could prevent many of the non pre-schooled children from failing in their school careers.

Summary

There is evidence to suggest that both teacher and child expectations can lead to self-fulfilling processes. These expectations may not be conscious, or they can be very clear judgements.

Whichever process is at work, placing a child's activity within a context is a means of revealing expectations and questioning the validity of the expectations.

There are two broad strategies available for mitigating the effects of the self-fulfilling processes which arise from expectations.

The first is to look at the classroom organization and the teachers interactions and to ask: are these a function of the teachers expectations and are they reinforcing those very expectations?

The other strategy is that of specific interventions with individual children, as discussed earlier with the transactional model.

Conclusion

The behaviours of a child are the 'product of the combination of an individual and his or her experience'. The danger then, is a prediction of the child's educational future from a 'singular focus on the characteristics of the ... child will frequently be misleading'(OU. 11).
What is needed is a consideration of both the child's past and present experiences.

References

Donaldson, Margaret. ( 1978) Children's Minds, London, Fontana Press.

Jackson, M. (1987) 'Making Sense of School', in Pollard, A. Children and their Primary Schools, London, Falmer Press.

The Open University (1991), E820 Child Development in Social Context, Reader Growing Up In A Changing Society

Rogers, C. Early admission: early labelling, p. 165

Crocker, T. and Cheeseman, R.  the ability of the young to rank themselves for academic ability, p.156.

Woodhead, M. Transactional models of early education effectiveness:  what is the message Pr policy?, p.183.

The Open University (1991), E820 Child Development in Social Context, Reader Learning to think.

Rogoff, B., Gauvain, M. and Ellis, S., Development viewed in its cultural context, p. 293

The Open University (1991), E820 Child Development in Social Context, Reader Becoming a Person

Sameroff, A. J. The Social Context of development, p.173.