These two sociologists were responsible for creating the "self fulfilling prophecy" theory, this argues that predictions made by teachers about the future success of students will tend to come true just because the prediction has been made. If a teacher defines a pupil as either bright or dull then the teacher has formed an opinion of the student and thus marks the student as such in work or pays more attention to the student, even being more willing to explain unclear points to the pupil in question than they would with a pupil that is perceived in a bad light.
They did this by having a study in which they carried out IQ tests on pupils and then generated false results in which 20% of the pupils were said to the teacher to be likely to achieve highly in all of their work, at the end of the academic year that randomly selected 20% of students had done better than the rest in the subject and the teachers had formed a better perception of those students who were predicted to score better even those that were selected may not actually have done better than the rest of the pupils.
Rosenthal and Jacobsen claimed that teacher's expectations could significantly affect the performance of the student that they teach. They believe that not only do the teachers favour the students themselves they also communicate that belief in the chosen 20% to the pupils that they teach and the chosen few responded by raising their performance, they speculated that things such as the teachers manner, facial expression and encouragement could convey this expectation causing pupils to up their game.
There are criticisms however; some sociologists believe that not all students will live up to their prophesied label, some pupils may resent the stereotype placed on them by the teacher and strive hard to break free of the mould that had been cast for them and as a result they may either do better or worse than expected.
