Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teachers Expectation and Pupils' Intellectual Development

When first published in 1968 (later updated in 1992) this book was received with almost universal acclaim for its ground breaking research. The "Pygmalion phenomenom" is the self-fulfilling prophecy embedded in teachers expectations. Simply put, when teachers expect students to do well and show intellectual growth, they do, but when teachers do not have such expectations, performance and growth are not as encouraged and may in fact be discouraged in a number of ways. A classic volume available once again.

Professor Rosenthal's research has centered for over 40 years on the role of the self-fulfilling prophecy in everyday life and in laboratory situations. Special interests include the effects of teacher's expectations on students' academic and physical performance, the effects of experimenters' expectations on the results of their research, and the effects of clinicians' expectations on their patients' mental and physical health. For some 40 years he has been studying the role of nonverbal communication in (a) the mediation of interpersonal expectancy effects and in (b) the relationship between members of small work groups and small social groups. He also has strong interests in sources of artifact in behavioral research and in various quantitative procedures. In the realm of data analysis, his special interests are in experimental design and analysis, contrast analysis, and meta-analysis. His most recent books and articles are about these areas of data analysis and about the nature of nonverbal communication in teacher-student, doctor-patient, manager-employee, judge-jury, and psychotherapist-client interaction. He is Co-Chair of the Task Force on Statistical Inference of the American Psychological Association.