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In the study, teachers were told that certain random students were exceptionally bright and likely to “realise their potential” in the end-of-year tests.”What the teachers didn’t know is that students were placed on these lists completely at random,” the study’s authors wrote. “There was no difference between these students and other students.”The results from the end-of-year exams, however, demonstrated a “powerful self-fulfilling prophecy”. The teacher’s belief in those “special” students begets better performance. “Students believed to be on the verge of great academic success performed in accordance with these expectations; students not labelled this way did not,” the researchers said.
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