Month: November 2008

You get what you want!

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Power of expectation

In management, the two most important secrets to success and productivity are: (1) the Pygmalion effect, and (2) the Galatea effect. The former focuses on performance expectation while the latter stresses the importance of on-going well-supported performance improvement. This article focuses on the Pygmalion effect – the power of expectation.

By definition, expectations are “a set of informed and/or uninformed predictions” that we hold of our own and others” behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Expectations are useful in regulating our day-to-day experiences, in dealing with people, and in understanding our subjective social world.

However, expectations could also lead to negative outcomes if relied on heavily without constant and deliberate awareness and monitoring of the same. Often, our predictions (expectations) bring to us what want to see in others and not necessarily what they truly intend to manifest. Regardless of how they are used, expectations play a great role in managing our own and others’ interpersonal interactions and these in turn determine our everyday performances.

Experiment with rats

In 1963, social psychologist Robert Rosenthal and his colleagues set up experiments collect empirical data on the power of expectation. Their research was called the study of “expectancy effect” or “self-fulfilling prophecy”. They randomly assigned rats into two groups, termed maze-bright and maze-dull. These rats were then given to two randomly selected college undergraduate students who took care of one group of rats each. The students only knew the rats as being either bright or dull. They were not aware of the fact that the rats were all the same.

When these students brought their respective rats back and tested them on the maze trials (ten trials over five consecutive days), the results indicated that the bright rats nearly doubled the dull rats in maze performances.

While there were no real differences in the intelligence of the two groups of rats, the bright rats did better because the college students who were responsible for them communicated high expectations through tactile and kinesthetic cues and these impacted the rats’ performances. The opposite is true about the dull rats. They underperformed because the students who were responsible for them communicated despondency and did not trust that the rats could produce anything of worth. They did so through their non-verbal cues.

Experiment replicated

Shocked by his findings, Robert Rosenthal designed another experiment to test the working of the expectancy effect with children and their teachers. If positive high expectation improved the performance of rats, could the same effect be seen, even more forcefully among students in learning? With this question in mind, Rosenthal assigned student-subjects to teachers (experimenters), a few of which were supposedly “early bloomers”. By this he meant that the few early bloomers have the potential of excelling exceedingly greater than their classmates. But the truth is – all the student-subjects were of the same IQ level before the experiment began (in fact they were chosen to be part of the study because they possessed similar IQs).

After a few weeks, a post IQ test was administered to all the student-subjects; It was found that the supposedly early bloomers scored two standard deviations higher than the rest of the class on an intelligence test. This indicates a 50% increase in IQ score among the students for whom teachers had held high positive expectations.

High/low expectation class

What does a class with high or low expectation look like? Expectations are communicated verbally and non-verbally. The following table indicates the type of things that could be expected when a class of students experience either one or both.

Positive high expectation Negative low expectation
Verbal cues (what teachers say and believe in) ·“I am excited about teaching grade three; I know they are going to be marvelous”

·“I know you can do it; here, let me help you…”

 ·“you always upset me Lucy”

· “I knew you’d fail – you always do!”

· “Oh no… not grade three, they are so dull. I don’t want to teach them!”
Non-verbal cues (what teachers do and communicate through tactile and kinesthetic means – more subtle) ·Paying attention to all students

·Asking questions to all students

·Involving students in decision making

·Helping and supporting through challenges in learning and other aspects of schooling

·Negotiating rather than imposing

·Smiling and maintaining eye-contacts

·Being approachable

 ·Paying attention only to the bright students and deliberately neglecting the weaker ones

·Asking questions challenging questions to bright students and very easy ones to weaker students

·Let students struggle and fail in difficult task

·Separate bright students from weaker ones through seating arrangements, class grouping, etc.

·Use frowns, disgust, anger as a weapon to hit students down

What do you want?

Teachers get what they want from their students. If they expect high performance, responsible citizenship, critical and creative thinking, generation of new knowledge and solutions – they would communicate these in a variety of ways to students. These will serve as positive stimulation for students to become motivated about being their best and performing well. When students sense and become convinced that their teachers have given up on them and expect them to be good for nothing, they will deliver the exact same thing – at least they are not disappointing the teachers and their predictions. The choice is ours to make. Let us choose to believe in and value students. Let us intentionally decide to stop ridiculing and de-valuing them.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Control and Learning

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Having attended many seminars and workshops, I have come to recognize that a learning session could be exciting or boring. It could also be frightening and overwhelming, especially when there is a vast disparity between a speaker’s frame of reference and that of the participants.

Almost always, participants in a learning session become disheartened by not being allowed to experience a sense of control over the process and the overall environment of learning.

Basic need

While attempting to control something or someone is seen as not very healthy, experiencing a sense of control is crucial to human existence. An individual who does not feel that he is in control of things will constantly fear the next possible event in his life. This relates directly to a sense of efficacy – the belief that one can effect positive changes in and around himself.

The belief in the ability to accomplish something is more important than the ability itself. This explains why people can sometimes teach themselves a new trade or trick even though no one expects them to be able to do so because they are not perceived to have the necessary abilities.

Individuals with a high level of efficacy believe in their potential to accomplish a task. The strong belief motivates them to do everything possible to gain mastery. Mastery, in return, brings about a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, progressing into a feeling of being in control as mastery affects, and is affected by, achievements.

Like other needs, the need for control over one’s own environment and life experiences is necessarily a basic psychological need that empowers an individual to become confident in accomplishing challenging tasks in life. Without it, one feels disempowered. Disempowerment is the leading cause for frustration, underperformance and lack of interest or motivation.

Case in point

Notice the facial expressions, body language and willingness to strike and keep a conversation among passengers in an airplane that is about to take off from a particular destination for another. One could conclude that most passengers would look resentful and uptight. I have travelled by air many times and this is the pattern that I have observed on all flights.

However, the opposite is true for the same passengers when the airplane is about to land at the destination (arrival). As the airplane approaches the terminal, people stand up, smile at each other, talk more, and present a more pleasant and positive aura compared to when they started. Why is this so?

The answer lies in the fact that passengers don’t feel a sense of control over their journey. In their minds, they have placed their lives in the hands of pilots and flight attendants whom they don’t know well enough to trust.

This is a good example of when the “sense of control” is completely taken away from individuals and the only way to feel a certain amount of control is by knowing more about the journey, getting updates from the pilot, walking around in the airplane, and, for people like me, sitting by the window to make sure that we are still flying.

The moment an airplane lands at its destination, the passengers experience an exhilarated sense of freedom that comes from the feeling of being in control of their own safety. They become happier because they are able to deliberately choose how safety is defined and pursued.

Application for learning

In the classroom, ensuring that students experience a sense of control over their learning is an essential ingredient for success. I have seen many students who initially possess zero ability but shoot up almost instantly when they are allowed to be in control of their own learning. There are several ways to make this a possibility:

Incorporate students’ voice into teaching: Listen to students and take into consideration what they have got to say about what to learn, how to learn, and how to assess learning. When students’ voices are heard, and when their suggestions are gratefully incorporated into teaching, they feel on top of things.

Focus on mastery: Although students differ in abilities, they are similar when it comes to needing to experience a sense of control. One sure way to help students feel in control of learning is by helping them gain competency in lessons.

Often, this would imply providing individual attention to a struggling student. While teachers may argue that this is difficult and impractical, we should not forget that a jump-start (short-term cognitive scaffolding), rather than a long haul of direct instruction, is sufficient to empower a child.

Provide opportunities for problem-solving: Students who are engaged in problem-solving (academic or non-academic) become independent thinkers, responsible citizens and sensitive human connectors. These characteristics provide room for personal growth and an expansion for the sense of being in control of oneself and one’s life experiences[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]