Card 23 - Differential Attainment: Internal Class Factors: Labelling

Question 1

How does labelling create a self-fulfilling prophecy according to Blumer?

Answer 1

3 steps:
• Teacher labels pupil.
• Teacher treats pupil according to the label.
• Pupil internalises the label and acts according to the teacher’s expectations. (Changes his IDENTITY)

Question 2

What did Rosenthal & Jacobsen’s study find about the self-fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 2

Found that after they had falsely identified students as “spurters” in a primary school, after coming back a year later more than half of the students had made significant progress.