People do better when more is expected of them. In education circles, this is called the Pygmalion Effect.
The Pygmalion effect got its name from the story of Pygmalion, a mythica(虚构的) Greek sculptor. Pygmalion carved a statue of a woman and then fell in love with it. He appealed to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who brought the statue to life and helped the couple get married. Just as Pygmalion's fixation on the statue brought it to life, our focus on a student can do the same in schools. Research by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson examined the influence of teachers' expectations on students' performance. They began by testing the IQ of elementary school students. Teachers were told that the IQ test showed around one-fifth of their students to be unusually intelligent. But unknown to the teachers, the "gifted" students were chosen at random. Actually they had no big statistical advantage over the other kids. As the study period ended, all students had their IQs retested. Both groups showed an improvement. Yet those who were described as intelligent experienced much greater gains in their IQ points. Rosenthal and Jacobson owed this result to the Pygmalion effect. Teachers paid more attention to "gifted" students, offering more support and encouragement than they would otherwise.
In general, teachers have the power to influence how the students behave by holding high expectations. If a teacher thinks a student is brilliant, they will treat them as such. The student then gets more opportunities to develop their ability, and their performance improves. This works both ways. When a student expects a teacher to be excellent or successful, they tend to be attentive and supportive. In the process, they improve their performance, too. Students who act interested in lectures create interesting lecturers.
