Labelling — teacher expectations and achievement
Teacher expectations affect student achievement through labelling and self-fulfilling prophecy: expectations shape classroom interaction, which shapes student identity and achievement.
Real World
Rosenthal and Jacobson's 1968 'Pygmalion in the Classroom' experiment at a California primary school showed that students randomly labelled as 'spurters' made significantly greater IQ gains, purely because teachers expected more of them and unconsciously gave them more encouragement.
Exam Focus
Always name Rosenthal & Jacobson and distinguish labelling from self-fulfilling prophecy — they are linked but separate concepts worth separate marks.
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