Teachers have the potential to be alchemists in a new golden age

George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion is ultimately about the power of education to transform lives and the power of knowledge to bring about societal change, writes Himmat S Dhillon

A century ago, in April 1914, George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion was staged for the first time in London. The play, a farcical look at class, wealth and love is centred on Dr Higgins, a professor of phonetics who sets out to train his Cockney subject, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess.

Beyond Shaw’s farce is a powerful lesson for teachers. Pygmalion is ultimately about the power of education to transform lives and the power of knowledge to bring about societal change.

So important are these lessons, that there is a compelling theory in education specifically known as the Pygmalion effect.

The effect, noted in numerous studies, is that a teacher’s expectations heavily influence student performance. In other words, positive expectations influence performance positively and negative expectations naturally influence performance negatively.

The Pygmalion effect was first studied by the team of Robert Rosenthal, a Harvard psychologist, and Lenore Jacobson, a principal who carried out research at a South San Francisco school.

This research caused a stir in the world of education when it was first published in 1968.

In their experiment, Rosenthal and Jacobson administered an intelligence test to all the students at an elementary school at the beginning of the school year.

The pair randomly selected 20 per cent of the students without any connection to their test results, but still labelled them as students with “unusual potential for intellectual growth.” They named these children “academic spurters” and this feedback was provided to the teachers.

It did not take long for teachers to begin perceiving their students differently. Eight months later, when the duo returned and administered a test to the same children, those labelled “academic spurters” were found to have performed much better than the rest of their class. In fact they exhibited an average increase of more than 12 points above their peers on IQ test scores.

These results are even more significant when set against the findings of a related task the teachers were given. They were asked to rate the intellectual curiosity, personal and social adjustment and desire for social approval of their students. The teachers observed that the children who had been set apart for greater potential had been rated significantly better on all those measures.

Clearly, the teacher creates a climate for learning and student success. But often our biases make us behave in a certain manner.

For teachers, the lesson is that it is crucial to use encouragement and positive reinforcement when dealing with students. But they must also be careful not to develop an inaccurate assessment of a child’s abilities. Our opinions must be built on bedrock of measurable evidence that is factual and not subjective.

Indeed, the very reason to set high expectations and celebrate student success is to get the best out of our students. When teachers perceive certain students as bright and others as not so, their perception drives how they treat their students. Inevitably this can be a primary cause for students doing poorly. Student failure and the long-term societal impact that this can have is often the result of teachers who had low expectations of their students.

The ancients were convinced that there such a thing as a Philosopher’s Stone with the singular capacity to transform the most insignificant of the base metals into gold. Generations of alchemists toiled away in search of the Stone, with little to show for their labours.

The irony is that education makes gold on a daily basis. It is in our schools and in our classrooms, that the ordinary is transformed into the extraordinary. It is teachers who are the shapers and polishers of that alchemy. It is they who can create ideal citizens with the competence to usher in a golden age.

Indeed, Professor Higgins, with the assistance of Colonel Pickering, succeeded in passing Eliza for a duchess. It may well be argued that the Pygmalion effect is nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy, but what is indisputable is that when the expectations of a teacher are communicated positively to the student, a change for the better occurs. That is what makes all the difference.

As Eliza herself notes when addressing Colonel Pickering: “The difference between a lady and a flower girl is not how she behaves, but how she’s treated. I shall always be a flower girl to Professor Higgins, because he always treats me as a flower girl, and always will, but I know I can be a lady to you, because you always treat me as a lady.”

The lesson for every teacher is to strive to treat each student in a way that will bring out the best in them. Those teachers who do will have the greatest impact on their students and our societies as a whole.

Himmat S Dhillon is principal at GEMS Education in Dubai