Disparate Teacher Attention Favouring the More Able: Some Data from Papua New Guinean Community and Provincial High Schools

Abstract

Several authors have indicated that the pygmalion effect (Rosenthal and Jacobson, 1968) may best be accounted for in terms of differential teacher attention to pupils whom they perceive as more and less able. Researchers have reported such disparate interaction patterns in primary and secondary classrooms in a number of countries. This paper reports separate non-participant observational studies of six community school classes and five provincial high school classes, showing that the teachers directed a disproportionately large number of questions (the principal teacher-pupil interaction initiator) to those pupils judged most able. In the high school study, teacher praise and disapproval were observed to be similarly unevenly distributed to the more able pupils’ advantage. These results are discussed as possible exemplars of the self-fulfilling prophecy in our schools.