ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the findings related to the teacher-expectancy effect. It draws attention to some of the major implications of the preceding discussion for the future development of a social psychology of schooling, and by implication aspects of the social psychology of education as a whole. Teacher-expectancy effects are more likely to occur when younger pupils are involved, when teachers have formed social expectations for their pupils under conditions likely to lead to the establishment of relatively distant teacher-pupil relationships and under conditions where the actions and expressed attitudes of the teacher are most likely to affect pupils' level of motivation and self-concepts. Social psychologists have turned to the study of cognitions on the basis of the assumption that it is these cognitions that largely determine the ways in which people behave, it is for them to demonstrate clearly the validity of this assumption within the context of the school classroom.
